Healing A Healer
by gamblerrikku
Summary: Misplaced trust and affection got her here; Now she has to find a way to cope with an extremely jarring and highly unlikely set of circumstances to make everything right again. KakaSaku, NaruIno -Connected oneshots based on given prompts-
1. Ethereality

**Prompt Word: **Untouchable

**Time to Finish: **2 ½ hours

**Listened to: **Those Nights - Skillet, Face Down – Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

_**GR's Note: **__This...was an experiment. An exercise in descriptive writing, actually. The prompt my tutor gave me was '__Untouchable__' and this was what my little mind cranked out. Be forgiving, this is pretty old__ , I just found it in my hard drive tonight and decided that I didn't hate it as much as I used to. That being said, I thought some people might find it nice that I updated with __something__, and I promise that I'll be back to my other fics shortly. Reviews are like cookies and candy, I love them in every color and flavor, so don't be shy about telling me what you think!_

**Part 1: Ethereality**

Most people wouldn't say that it was a nice night, not by a long shot. He, however, wasn't most people. To him, laying in bed and watching white-hot electricity streak across a pitch black sky through his bedroom window was a relaxing and rare opportunity to lose himself in aimless thoughts. Listening to the relentless percussion of driving raindrops on his apartment roof and windows was calming enough for him to forget, for a moment, that he was an assassin, a murderer, a killer. No longer among those who still retained their purity, could still call themselves human. He no longer counted himself as such, he was too tainted, a demon only destined to rot among others like him in hell, when his bloodstained life finally ended.

To say that he was surprised when she appeared at his window and tapped on the pane frantically, a panicked plea for entrance appearing on her lips as she was illuminated in the dark for only fractions of a second at a time would be a dire understatement. The erratic lighting punctuated by complete darkness gave him the impression that she looked like some wondrously ethereal maiden, a faerie or an angel, but one who was losing her strength, one whose inner strength was waning and fighting not to completely go out. Why she was pleading entrance to his darkened sanctum at this hour, in this weather, with her seraphic luminescence threatening to be engulfed by the cloud covered night for good was beyond his very comprehension, his very ability to question as he approached the transparent barrier between them and opened it, wordlessly extending an invitation to the bedraggled faerie girl waiting on his windowsill.

"Can I come in, Kakashi-sensei?" Silently, he nodded and stepped aside, allowing her slender body to slip inside and drop gracefully to the wet floorboards, where she stayed, head dipped into her chest and breathing heavily. He shut the window once again, quietly watching the young woman trying to get a hold of herself while she dripped water onto the floor, completely soaked. She wasn't doing anything except breathing, yet she still mesmerized him, disallowing him the luxury of looking away, a power she possessed but had no inkling of.

"What are you doing here, Sakura?" Another flash of lightning rent the sky, illuminating matted locks that he knew were a pale pink, a perfect representation of the tiny blossoms that served as her namesake, yet under the blue-white bursts of light appeared lavender in color, almost completely white even, at times. She didn't raise her head to answer him, but he could still hear the impending tears on the girl's voice, the ones she was trying to hide from him.

"He's expecting me to go to Naruto and Ino, so I headed here. He would have stopped me before I even reached their apartment, I wouldn't have even made it to the door." His eyes narrowed as he listened to the hiccups interspersed between her words, as he watched the water dripping off of her face onto the bare skin of her thighs take on a dark hue, puddling until it reached the hem of her black shorts and start to disappear, absorbing into the already waterlogged fabric.

"Sakura, look at me." Obligingly, she pushed the hair out of her face and tilted her head upwards, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from the copy nin. Her face was pouring blood from a prominent slash that had nearly caught her right eye, extending down on an angle from the innermost point of her eyebrow past the corner of her mouth and dropping off sharply when it reached the plane of her jaw. Wounds like that didn't belong on angels.

"What happened? That's going to scar, you know." She nodded, cracking a halfhearted smile at the odd observation. Dipping her head again, she brought up the hem of her red shirt to dab off some of the free-running liquid that just happened to match it exquisitely.

"We got into a fight." It was a simple answer, and yet he knew exactly who she was referring to in addition to herself as he brought her a dark towel to dry herself with and clean up her face, now stained with tears mixed in with the blood.

"Apparently. What could have caused you to fight so badly that he needed weapons?" Gratefully she took the soft rectangle of terrycloth from him, her eyes darting to the glinting of metal on her finger as another flash of lightning split the sky outside, before burying her face in the dark fabric to obstruct her view.

"He found out why we weren't conceiving and he didn't take the revelation well." Her voice was muffled up until the moment her fingertips started to emit a soft green glow and she let the towel drop away from her face onto her lap. The ethereality the glow imbued upon her appearance as she made an effort to close the cut on her face was stronger than the luminescence that the light outside had given her and only served to anchor the young woman's place as an otherworldly visitor in her current companion's mind. In his mind though, otherworldly maidens didn't get wounded by their husbands and they never sought refuge in a demon's lair.

"You know why he married you, you knew that from the moment he asked you." They both knew. Her husband had asked her right in front of him, and even at the time the question wasn't really a question, it was very nearly an order, cold and unfeeling, controlling and manipulative. Very much like the man himself had become, in fact.

"I told him that I wasn't going to have children before I was ready, I was quite up front with him." As the glow of her fingertips crossed to a different part of her delicate face, reflecting directly into her celadon eyes and infusing them wit the illusion of a spark they had long since lost, he noticed the darkening bruises scattered across the portions of porcelain colored flesh visible to him. The rage he felt building up within him at the sight was almost unknown to him, one normally so in control of his emotions. Yet, he found that he couldn't stand the thought of anyone laying a hand on the delicate creature in front of him in anything other than kindness, caring and love. More primitive emotions had no place in her presence.

"You've been the only girl on our squad for ten years. You know that we men only hear what we want to." He dodged as something small and metallic went flying past his ear, landing with a deafening clatter behind him in the next room as she scowled at him.

"You don't have to say it like that, you jerk." One look at her hand revealed what he had already known and he smiled softly behind his mask, unbeknownst to her. He took a moment to hand her the smallest shirt he had been able to find, a perfect match for the pants that he had outgrown a long time ago and bore a permanent bloodstain on the cuff of the left leg, clothes he had never realized why he kept up until this happened.

"Prove me wrong. Look at what your husband did to you because he didn't want to listen. As a collective, men are thoughtless, selfish and insensitive, which you should have realized by now." She stood finally, with a little difficulty and a helping hand as she regarded the older man with a genuinely caring gaze.

"Some of you have your moments." The kiss she placed on his masked cheek was as sweet and delicate as the girl herself and inwardly he found himself lost in his musings once again as she shut the bedroom door and he vaguely heard her flop out on his couch. Was that small gesture a blessing, a sign that somewhere, somehow, god had forgiven his misdeeds and sent him an angel as proof that light could break through the black clouds blanketing his existence? Or was it merely the confirmation of his accumulated sins, this shining beacon which he could see but never touch, a tease sent by the devil himself to remind him who he belonged to?

To her, his heart was nothing, a plaything that she had no idea she even possessed, yet to him, she would ever be the reason he didn't completely shut down, the symbol of why he continued to be. As he resumed his position on his bed, looking out the window, the clouds broke for the first time that night, allowing a beam of silver moonlight to fall across the floor and strike the door, open just a crack. Just enough to see her, sprawled on his couch, wearing his shirt and bathed in the ethereal light of a nearly full moon.

In the morning she would pick up her wedding ring from where it fell on the floor and she would put on her own clothes again. She would leave before she thought he was awake, leaving a note in her delicate, fine handwriting saying thanks for being such a good friend. She would see their friends and put on a cheerful face, saying perhaps that her injuries had been caused during training, that they would heal in a couple of days, that they didn't bother her. She would come some other night, same as she had tonight, she'd make her excuses and he'd pretend to believe them, they would continue where they left off. He would never touch her though. No demon has the right to touch someone so pure, and no angel would ever want to be touched by someone so tainted.

Things would remain as they were, a picture of ethereality.


	2. Substantiality

**GR's Note: **_Stupid ideas. _**_Ethereality_**_ was meant to be a one-shot, but I was urged to continue on with the idea. Yes, I will be continuing with the idea, but this is very much for my tutor, and I'll only write each part as he gives me the prompt for it. I see him 1-2 times a week and he doesn't give me a word every session, so this'll move on when he feels like it. I'm not allowed more than 4 hours for any one prompt, so don't expect epic chapters like I write for _**_Maybe Forever_**_. I wasn't able to capture the same feel as I did for the first part, and I probably won't be able to catch the same feel for any two parts because these are essentially written as connected one-shots. Again, reviews are love!_

**Prompt Word**: Inevitable

**Time to Finish**: 3 ½ hours

**Listened to**: Do You Know - Enrique Iglesias, Stand in the Rain - Superchick

**Part 2 : Substantiality**

Things could always change. It's impossible for things to remain forever the same, which means that by default, change is fated. Change is needed, and shouldn't be unexpected for any reason. That was why as she lay there in the grass, fingers dipping into the soothing water running along the rocky stream bed, she accepted the inevitable, her heart shattering as she watched a small fish swim the current below her.

"Sign them." She regarded the sheaf of papers that had been thrust under her nose, the ornate black pen that had been shoved into her hand. Realizing what they were for, she propped herself up on one elbow, eyes welling with tears. She had changed for him and even now she wasn't good enough. She no longer suited his purpose, his passions lay elsewhere and she was staring at the blinding truth.

"I'm not worth waiting for anymore, Sasuke-kun?" Things had changed between them too. The scar on her face was the line he had crossed, physical proof that things had gone too far. She no longer adored him like she once had, yet somehow she still loved him and was saddened that she couldn't measure up to his standards.

"You were never worth waiting for. Sign them." In a final show of obedience she complied, not as surprised at his words as she might have been, though they crushed the fragments of her already shattered heart to dust. He would never understand how much he was hurting her by doing this, just as he never understood why she loved him in the first place. She heard him leave without another word when she handed him back the pen and papers. No goodbye, no expression or gesture indicating that this was where things ended, where their lives parted ways. Mere feet from where he had proposed to her, but he probably didn't even remember that, forget actually applying any significance to the memory. Once he was gone, her gaze ventured to the ring finger of her left hand, to the silver band that loosely adorned the slender digit. Wasn't that tiny circle supposed to represent unity, love that continued on forever? Did the vows they uttered before a sanctified alter mean absolutely nothing?

Reluctantly, slowly, she removed the cold metal from her finger and let it rest in her palm for a moment, examining the numerous scratches and scuffs that decorated the otherwise plain band, trophies of the numerous times she had thrown it out of anger or frustration. She studied it, memorized it, ingrained it into her memories before leaning up on one arm and throwing it as hard as she could upstream, where she never heard the splash as it hit the water. There would be no picking it up this time, no retrieving it. It was gone now, just like the man she had worked so hard for.

"He already found you, didn't he?" A soft sigh escaped her lips as she stretched back out on the grass, one hand once again immersed into the cold, clear water running below her. She hadn't heard he former sensei approach, but that was nothing to be surprised about. He had more than a decade of intensive training and experience on her and with all the work she had been doing within the white-walled confines of the hospital, she had been all but neglecting her own shinobi training and her skills were losing their edge. But that wasn't the issue at hand and she had no will to make it so. The last thing she needed was another reminder of her inadequacies, she had had enough of that to last a lifetime.

"I'm the last to know again, aren't I? He cheats, she gets pregnant and he divorces me. Three for three." With her face buried in the crook of her arm she couldn't see, yet she she still sensed him sit somewhere in front of her, simple evidence of how comfortable and attuned to him she was anymore. He had become her confidante since she got married, even more over the last year or so, since the night things had gone too far.

"It hurts, I know. You have to have, at some point, realized that your priorities were too different though. Something like this was unavoidable and you've known it for months now." She frowned into her arm before finally raising her eyes to look at him, a picture of relaxation. Sitting with his back to a tree, masked nose buried between the magenta colored covers of his newest book, he looked like he was reading, but she knew better. He was watching her, like he always did.

"How lame am I? I just turned twenty-three and I've already been divorced and replaced. I'm so stupid, I can't believe that I thought he might have cared about me enough to wait for me." The intensity of the gaze he was directing at the book, or more accurately, over the book was nearly frightening to the young woman, being the true recipient of the look. She couldn't think of anything she had done to him to deserve to be stared at like that and promptly her shinobi-trained mind kicked into high gear and began to look around for possible escape routes, her body tensing and ready to move quickly if it looked like the situation would require. He didn't move though, save for the fingers that intermittently turned the pages in his hands.

"...Were you happy?" The question caught her off-guard, particularly voiced in the gentle, almost hesitant tone that belied everything she saw written in the gaze fixed intently upon her. She opened her mouth to spit out her automatic response, but the word wouldn't leave her throat. Her body's hesitancy to follow the lead of her heart forced her to think about his question, leaving her mind to try and break the stalemate between the two. Even after a good deal of careful pondering though, she found that she couldn't give him a straight answer, and that bothered her like nothing else had in a long time.

"I was, at first. I... don't really know when things changed though. Maybe after this..." She ran a fingernail along the permanently sensitized skin that descended along the right side of her nose and past her mouth right down to her chin, remembering the night that her faerie-tale marriage had truly started to rip apart at the seams. She had spent that night at another man's apartment, yet her husband had gone one farther, seeking warmth in another woman's bed. A woman who was now merely weeks away from birthing him an heir and would effectively push Sakura out of his mind for good.

"So that's a 'no' then? If you weren't happy with him, what's stopping you now that he's focused his attention on somebody else?" The first drops falling down from the sky escaped the notice of the two shinobi, but it didn't take long for the light rain to grow heavy and cold, a fitting precursor to the storm they both knew was brewing. Relishing the sensation of the frigid drops on her skin, Sakura rolled onto her back, her arms thrown out to her sides as she closed her eyes to the dull charcoal clouds. Right then, it didn't cross her mind that she might get sick, or that she was undoubtedly showing Kakashi more than he should be seeing of her body, it only occurred to her that this was something she was enjoying and wanted to continue doing.

"When you've loved somebody for so long, it's kind of difficult to stop. It's not something that you can just switch on and off like a light, you know." Staring at the back of her eyelids and entranced by the feeling of the heavy droplets hitting her skin, she didn't notice immediately that Kakashi had risen from his seat under the tree, his book already sheltered in his weapon pouch among immaculately sharpened steel. It wasn't until she realized that no fresh drops were striking her face that she opened her eyes again, to be faced with the familiar sight of him standing above her, one hand extended down to help her stand. More out of habit than an actually need for help she took it, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

"You're not going home tonight." It wasn't a question, and the simple statement was met with a cool laugh as she reached up to push away the soaked strands of pink hair that had fallen in front of her face. Fixing him with an affectionate, but still slightly sad gaze, she shook her head.

"No, I'm not. Now that she's taken my place though, I'm sure Naruto wouldn't mind me taking over Ino's half of the rent for a while." Self-consciously she crossed her arms over her chest, slightly wary of his penetrating stare that seemed to be shearing right through her sleeveless pink sundress. He was unabashedly staring right at her chest... no, that wasn't right. Lower. He was staring at her stomach? He did so for only a moment longer though before his gaze drifted back to her face again.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea, if Naruto were in the village. He's on a mission to Suna, he won't be back for at least four days, probably more like five though." Her face fell visibly and she started to chew her lip, a habit that only struck on occasion, when she was nervous or worried. After a moment she attempted a smile, once again raising her gaze to look him in the eye.

"Couch again, huh?" She heard a low chuckle as she took the hand that was offered to her, closing her eyes to combat the nausea and dizziness that had a habit of overcoming her when she got caught within teleportation jutsus.

"Tsunade would kill me if she found out I made you sleep on the couch in your condition." Her eyes snapped open in surprise a moment too soon, disallowing her the ability to voice her shock as a wave of nausea sent her to her knees on his floor, free hand clapped quickly over her mouth.

"How did... you... find out?" Caught between the terrible realization that if he knew, then other people including her now ex-husband probably knew too, and the sick feeling that was threatening to empty her stomach contents, she found 'difficult' to be far too bland of a word to describe her efforts to speak coherently.

"Pakkun has a big mouth. Here, dry yourself off." She took the towel he handed to her and stood shakily, one hand still pressed against her mouth as she did what she was told, soaking up the liquid that matted her hair and clothes to her body with the dark terrycloth.

"You didn't tell anyone, did you?" He lowered his gaze to meet her own, surprised at the fearful tone that escaped her. Reaching out to him with frightened eyes, she reminded him of the young girl he had met her as, well over ten years previous and the resemblance disturbed him to no end.

"It's not my secret to tell, although you should have told him at least, especially if you wanted him to stay." Relieved, she continued to dry off, only now looking around the uncharacteristically cluttered apartment with a little interest. There were boxes piled on boxes, all stacked haphazardly around the living area and very nearly barricading access to other parts of his domicile.

"It wouldn't have made any difference. He'll have the heir he wants so badly in three weeks, maybe less. This happened too late to change anything. Is somebody moving in with you? I can go stay with Hinata or Tenten if I'm getting in your way." Her attention turned to him just as he started pulling a clean shirt over his head and just as quickly turned away to hide the blush that was tinting her cheeks a shade of pink that matched her hair and dress immaculately. As a medic, she had seen bits and pieces of him when she fixed him up after a mission or even just training with the boys, but she had never gotten an eyeful of him half-dressed before and the sight was a little more... appealing than she thought it should have been.

"It's all your stuff. He evicted you before he went looking for you and I tricked Gai into carting it all back here so it wouldn't get ruined if I couldn't find you before the storm hit." The blush faded as fast as it had appeared when her attention snapped to the nearest box, followed quickly by her body as she nearly ripped the top off in her haste to open it. True to his words, it was her belongings residing in the cardboard cartons and an unprecedented wave of hurt washed over her, nearly reducing her to tears.

"I can't believe it... How could he...?!" He stopped the fist that she slammed down in anger before it actually hit the box, knowing full well that she'd regret destroying her possessions later, once she had calmed down a bit. Without letting go of her hand he retreated to another room, pulling her along with him. She didn't resist in the slightest, following him until he stopped and placed her squarely in front of his expansive bedroom window. Perplexed, she looked back at his questioningly as he leaned forward slightly, one hand resting on the frame and his chest pressed gently to her bare shoulder. Her gaze snapped quickly back to the window as her face began to heat again, and his voice practically right at her ear did nothing to extinguish the blush.

"Forget about him for a moment and look outside. Tell me what you see." She did so, taking a moment to muse over the fact that he still exerted a fair amount of control over her, despite having lost any actual authority he had over her years ago. She had come to him for help countless times, each time climbing in through the window before her rather than bothering with the door and yet this was her first time actually turning back to look out through it.

"You have a really nice view of the village from up here." It would have been a lot nicer if the rain wasn't blurring everything together and obscuring the details, but even that had its own sort of charm. She felt a weight rest lightly on her waist, warm through the wet fabric already clinging to her skin and a short glance proved it to be his hand, causing her blush to darken and a slight shiver to course through her body.

"That's not exactly what I had in mind. Keep going." Looking out again, it dawned on her that he wanted her to describe the only thing she could really see clearly, the weather.

"It's raining pretty hard now, storming actually. The wind's picking up and from the looks of things, that hurricane that wasn't supposed to hit us will at the very least nick us. I bet that there are a lot of people down there boarding up their windows while they still have the chance." She wasn't worried about the weather though, not now. One of the major perks of being a jounin were the benefits, like weatherproofing jutsus on your apartment, a blessing in a climate prone to violent summer storms. She was safe here.

"Now, that hurricane is probably going to hit, stay a while and cause some damage to the village, right?" She nodded, barely noticing that she was shivering more prominently as they stood there, his voice mesmerizing her into a calmer, more core content state than she had been in all day. Several days, actually, since she first noticed that she was getting sick on a daily basis and had outright missed her time of the month.

"But no matter how bad the storm is, the sun always comes back. All the damage eventually gets fixed. You understand what I'm saying, right? It will take time, and the will to move on, but I know you can let go of him. You're stronger than anyone actually gives you credit for, Sakura." It wasn't often that he gave anyone praise or such blatant encouragement like this, but for some reason her head was becoming too foggy to really grasp the significance of his words. It wasn't until she broke into a fit of erratic sneezing and her skin turned to a mass of goosebumps that they realized she was probably getting sick, still dressed as she was. Gently he turned her and gave her a friendly push in the direction of her things.

"Let's get you some clothes so you can hop in the shower. I'll take the couch tonight." Shaking her head nervously she started to peek into one box after another, silently wondering who had packed them. After checking about half a dozen of them she came across one harboring her comfortable clothes and admitted to herself that they'd just have to do for the night. She picked out the first t-shirt and pair of sweatshorts she caught sight of, not particularly caring that they were both well-worn, threadbare and faded to the point where you couldn't actually tell what color they had originally been.

"Thanks for doing this for me. Sorry about being such a pest, I'll be out of your hair as soon as I can find my own apartment." Smiling through his mask at her he shooed her into the washroom to clean up, effectively ending any discussion on the matter.

He wouldn't ever make her leave and he'd be there to help her for as long as she needed him. He'd probably even make himself a hindrance to her efforts to move out, at least up until she absolutely needed the extra space. For now though, he would keep a close eye on her and try as hard as he could to lift her spirits, to help her find happiness again. Even as things changed, they'd still stay very much the same, he'd make sure of it. For her.


	3. Sanctity

**GR's Note: **_This one's just short, a transitional piece. There is a lot of meaning shoved in here too, so it is sort of important though. Thank you for all your reviews, I adore reading them and thank you so much to the one giving me the prompts for the story, even though you're being a prat and a damn backseat driver to this story with these stupid words you're giving me. You're practically writing this thing for me, Lex!_

**Prompt Word**: Interception

**Time to Finish**: 2 hours

**Listened to**: Even Angels Fall – Jessica Riddle, Running Away – Three Days Grace

**Part 3 : Sanctity**

He had always been a nuisance, even if he wasn't trying to be. It was just the way he was, and he wouldn't ever change. She knew that when she told him her plans, and so instinctively she knew he'd step in just to mess them up. Because he was just a nuisance. A nosy, slightly overbearing, lazy, eternally late nuisance. But then again, if she didn't really want him stepping in, she just shouldn't have said anything.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard that right. You want to do what?" Inside the hokage's office, an unnaturally slender pink-haired girl stood on the other side of a large wooden desk from her fair-haired mentor, twisting her fingers and staring at the carpet as she found her voice.

"I'd like to take that mission in Wind Country, if it's still being offered. The long one." The blond could only stare at her marked student in bewilderment and suspicion, wondering what could have possibly inspired such a change of heart in the young woman on such short notice. One reason struck her as fairly likely, but was it enough to make her really want what she said she did?

"Yes, it's still being offered, I've even had to send out for an appropriate list of candidates to do it, since nobody is volunteering. However, if you're requesting it willingly, I have no choice but to let you take it." The smaller woman let out a pointed sigh of relief and smiled shakily, clasping her fingers together over her abdomen without realizing it. This particular gesture didn't go unnoticed by the keen hazel eyes of the hokage, triggering her suspicions even more.

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama. You have no idea how much I need this." Even her voice was shaking slightly, imperceptible to those who didn't know her well. Something had her incredibly nervous or frightened and that was something that unsettled her mentor greatly. She had spent a great deal of time teaching the young girl to be strong in both body and spirit, to be fearless and confident, yet now she harbored the appearance of having forgotten all of it.

"I can only imagine. You must be having a difficult time adjusting to things now, especially like this." The woman's words were only meant to refer to the callous delivery of the situation unto her student, but Sakura's surprised and increasingly nervous reactions slipped the final piece into place to confirm her theory.

"Please don't say anything to him, and please don't discount me for the mission because of it either, Tsunade-sama... You have no idea how much I need to do this..." Tsunade merely nodded at her student, regarding her slumped and defeated stance with concern. This should have been the happiest time of the young girl's life, but the thoughtless actions that had cast her aside were making it into the likeness of a nightmare.

"My lips are sealed, Sakura. As for the mission, this will more than likely work in your favor to corroborate your cover. I do, however, expect you to take care of yourself and to keep in contact with me about your condition in addition to your normal updates on the mission status." She looked up at her mentor through thick lashes, a small, unsure smile spreading across her lips. Tsunade continued to watch her, frowning slightly as she likened the girl's appearance to one of a china doll. A delicate doll with moving limbs, a speaking voice and a crack that nearly ran the entire length of her white face, even bisecting her tiny pink mouth. Her slender body swam within the slightly oversized uniform she wore, one that the blond could have sworn had fit her properly less than a month ago, and even her formerly beautiful green eyes had lost their luster and had grown haunted, lifeless.

"I will, Tsunade-sama, I promise. Do you know who my mission partner is, or didn't any men volunteer either?" Tsunade shook her head and Sakura's shoulders slumped further down before a knock at the office door snapped the girl to attention. The less she looked like there was something wrong, the less questions would be asked before she left, which was her only goal at the moment.

"Tsunade-sama, Kakashi needs to speak with you." The door had only been open a crack to allow the hokage's brunette assistant to speak to the occupants of the office, but the moment that the blond began to nod in acknowledgment it was shoved open roughly to admit the aforementioned visitor.

"Shut the door, Kakashi. You have that list for me?" The silver-haired man's gaze settled on the silent occupant of the room as he did what he was told and moved in front of the desk to stand beside her.

"No, I don't have the list. I'm volunteering." Dropping the hand she had extended to the desk sharply, she stared at her best jounin with undisguised incredulity and when he didn't offer any more of an explanation she was forced to try and take things into context.

"Why? I'm sure there are far more suitable candidates among the ranks of ANBU, Kakashi." He shrugged slightly, fighting to keep his expression nonexistent and his gaze off of the silent girl that was pointedly looking away from him at the carpet.

"Gai's beginning to be a bit of a pest and I thought a nice long undercover mission might do me some good." Tsunade rolled her eyes, not even bothering to hide her lack of faith in his excuses. She had a nagging suspicion that his sudden urge to take on a long term intel-gathering mission had a lot to do with his former student's plea to get away from the village. It wasn't any real secret that he had been the one she had been running to when problems started to arise in her marriage, and likewise it wasn't very difficult to see that he was uncharacteristically caring and protective of her. Deciding quickly that nobody would make sure the girl took care of herself better than he would, the blond woman felt that even though they weren't the best possible candidates for this mission in terms of skill and specialties, it shouldn't matter too much under the circumstances.

"Alright, sign this, both of you. You know the basics of the mission, and the details are in the scroll. If you go down to the jewelers' shop in the village and show him the scroll, he'll fit you for your rings." Knowing that their cover needed to be as real as possible in case something unfavorable happened did absolutely nothing to lift the sullen expression on the pink-haired girl's face as she scribed her delicate signature onto the thick paper with the pen Tsunade had handed her, a black one identical to the pen she had used to sign similarly important papers little more than a week previous. She watched dispassionately as Kakashi followed her example, noting that his signature was far more legible than his normal handwriting and almost looked elegant next to her own spidery name on the paper.

"You may kiss the bride. I expect you both to be gone by sunrise tomorrow, we've already been delayed too long on this assignment because of the collective reluctance to volunteer for it. Good luck." Knowing that the kiss was important to the legitimacy of the ceremony even if the speeches and other rituals usually associated with a wedding weren't, he took down his mask long enough to chastely press his lips to hers. She didn't open her eyes to look at him and the mild static shock that signified the chakra binding as legitimate reminded her far too harshly of just what she was doing.

He was the only one to see the solitary tear roll along the scarred groove of her cheek.


	4. Fragility

**GR's Note: **_This one was pretty difficult to write, mostly because I moved away from Kakashi and Sakura for the time being, to keep things going in chronological order. This chapter is short again, mostly because of the difficulty I had coming up with an idea for the word that didn't portray Sakura as the fragile one within the time limit I was given, which I almost overshot. So, forgive if it seems a little cut-off at the end, I tried to fix it but I ran out of time._

**Prompt Word**: Fragile

**Time to Finish**: 4 hours

**Listened to**: AFI – This Time Imperfect, Live – Lightning Crashes, Evanescence – Missing

**Part 4: Fragility**

The things we do to ourselves and to others will always catch up to us. That is the very basis for the concept of karma, that whatever good or evil we do returns to us in full, eventually. Not everyone believes in it and in fact many go through the life under the illusion that they can do no wrong, but that illusion tends to be very fragile. When struck just right, it will break.

"How's the Yamanaka girl doing?" The blond-haired woman stepped into a cramped office, shutting the door softly behind her before regarding the short-haired brunette busy behind the desk. The smaller woman looked up at her mentor wearily, rubbing one eye with the back of her hand and leaving a smudge of blue ink in its wake. Her eyes were darkened, bloodshot and underscored with pronounced dark crescents, her normally perfect posture now attesting to her fatigue.

"Not good, she... lost the first one and they're... having problems with the second...They don't know if she'll fare any better than her... big... brother." Her words were interspersed with breathless pauses and erratic sobs before she collapsed forward into her folded arms onto the desk, another broken sob issuing forth from her lips. Understanding, the older woman held back her own impending tears, reaching forward to cautiously brush her oldest protege's hair with her fingers.

"Shizune, you should go home and get some rest. Go see your family, have a hot bath and relax with your husband. I'll stay down here for today to keep an eye on things." Her request did little to calm the crying woman and so Tsunade simply remained silent, stroking her hair gently in a show of sympathy she would only ever bestow upon a few, one of which was beyond her reach now.

Like anyone whose profession centered around preserving human life, Tsunade and Shizune both knew that some lives just could not be saved, for whatever reason. They had both lost their fair share of patients who simply could not hold on, but even knowing what they did about the fragility of everything they stood for did not stop them from feeling guilt, remorse and sorrow when they witnessed death. Everything only felt worse when the one to die was an infant, a child who never even had a chance to breathe his first breath, to see his mother's face for the first time.

"I don't think I could relax right now, Tsunade-sama. I should stay and finish some of this paperwork, if I can't do anything else." But th blond wasn't the leader of an entire village of shinobi for nothing, and she hated her orders being questioned or refused, even if they had originally been stated as a request or friendly advice.

"Damn it Shizune, I said get your ass out of my hospital! Go home!" Snapping up out of shock, Shizune raised her waterlogged brown eyes to meet the blond's hazel ones. Tsunade's expression softened immediately, even venturing a reassuring smile for Shizune's benefit.

"Go home and get it off your chest. I'm sure Genma and Chihiro would love to see that you're home in bed when they wake up, and you're not any good to finish your shift in this state. I won't say it again." Accepting her dismissal, Shizune slowly got up from her seat and took her coat, which had been hanging over the back of her chair and draped it over her shoulders. She sent a small, grateful smile her mentor's way as she walked past her and wearily exited the office, stumbling slightly as her fatigue made itself even more prominently known.

Shaking her head slightly, the older woman shut the lights off and locked the door as she too exited the room, before making her way quickly and purposefully to the maternity ward. In general, labor and delivery were left to civilian specialists because of the lack of chakra used in the process of childbirth, but if she could help, she would.

She heard the feminine sobs from out in the hallway, but the sight that greeted her when she pushed open the door was encouraging, if only slightly. Disheveled and looking thoroughly distraught and exhausted was one Yamanaka Ino, ignoring her husband of two days in favor of keeping two teary ice blue eyes locked onto the infant in the bassinet beside her. Nobody cast so much as a glance at the hokage when she entered, all eyes being fixed upon the fragile little body with tubes in her nose, struggling to breathe. The sight was heartbreaking to Tsunade, having always wanted children but being unable to conceive. Seeing this child brought into existence out of little more than spite yet still already well-loved struggling as hard as she could to avoid her older brother's fate was a little hard to stomach for the older woman. When she had found out in the first place what had been going on behind her student's back she had been livid, to put it mildly, and the Uchiha's standing with her had only been getting worse since then between Ino's pregnancy and Sakura's divorce.

Fortunately, Tsunade was not a cold enough individual to let her opinion of an infant's parents bias her treatment of the child itself. Silently she pushed her way past the doctor and nurse tending the infant, finally attracting the fearful gazes of it's parents and provoking a frightened whisper of her name to escape the new mother sitting on the bed only feet from her, her lips quivering. Sasuke's eyes remained locked on his wife and daughter although he was fully aware of how he had personally affronted the hokage and subsequently wary of the woman's vindictive nature.

Seeing the blank and defeated expression on the raven-haired man's face, Tsunade had to wonder if maybe he realized how much he deserved to be hurt like this, his wife too. Sakura had never done anything ill-natured to either of them but they had caused her slow deterioration right under everyone's nose. But, while the adults did deserve it, the child was like Sakura, an innocent who hadn't done any wrong. Decisively, Tsunade laid glowing hands upon the fragile body and began to help the baby finish it's adjustment to the world.

Being born at least three weeks prematurely, the small girl's lungs were not yet suited for their given task, as well as a small host of other problems that arose with the untimely birth. The child quieted and stilled while concentrated on strengthening the infant's natural growth, mimicking the last weeks in the womb with a hazy pool of energy that she poured over the tiny girl. In a momentary sliver of time where the child opened her eyes, Tsunade noted with some surprise that there was no color, only milky white. Either Sasuke was not the father or more likely, the child was blind and probably would be for the rest of her life.

Stopping her ministrations only when she was awarded with a loud, shrieking wail, the blond smiled silently and unhooked the squalling child from the machines that had been keeping her alive, swaddled her warmly and lifted her up to carry her over to her mother. Nearly crying once again, though this time from relief, Ino reached out for her daughter, cradling her to her chest protectively while raining kisses upon her red face.

"Tsunade-sama." The hokage was stopped as she attempted to take her leave and allow the doctor and nurse to continue their work. Somberly, she turned to face the dark-haired man who had nearly watched his daughter daughter die before his very eyes, warning him with only one well-placed glare that she was not very happy with him.

"Go see your wife and daughter, Sasuke. I have nothing to say to you." He didn't let her go however, haunted eyes watching her face as he tried to find his words.

"Where is Sakura? I tried to go see her this afternoon and Kakashi's apartment is empty." A muscle in Tsunade's shoulder spasmed slightly as she curled her fist, nails digging into her palm as she tried to keep her temper reigned in. The fact that he even had the nerve to mention Sakura was enough reason for Tsunade to want to wreak havoc on his pretty little face, but admitting that he'd gone to try and see her, that was too much. If they had been anywhere other than the hospital, she just would have let go.

"Sakura and Kakashi aren't in the village and I don't expect them back anytime in the near future." His face shot up, surprise and concern overriding the despairing expression he had been sporting.

"Where did they go?!" Tsunade shook her arm out of his tightening grip, turning her back on him once again in preparation to exit the room.

"I can't reveal the details of their mission, it's classified. If you have a message for either of them you can leave it on my desk in the tower, I'll see to it that they get it. Be warned though, I will be screening anything you wish to send them. Good night." Without another word Tsunade left the brooding young man and started to return to her own section of the hospital, intent upon doing exactly as she promised Shizune she'd do.

As she passed a window that happened to have been left open overnight, she noted the lightening of the mildly cloudy sky above Konoha's treeline. It was sunrise. The deadline for their departure was here, but judging from what Sasuke had already told her, she felt she could hazard a guess that they were long gone by now. In Sakura's state, she would probably have left the moment she had been given permission, so it wouldn't be surprising if that's exactly what the girl had done.

"Come back to us safe and happy, Sakura." The blond's murmured plea was lost into the warm air outside as she continued along her predetermined path for the day, a part of her mind unwavering in it's resolve to worry. The best she could hope for was that Kakashi would protect her from the most dangerous aspects of their assignment, and that it was only S-ranked because of a paranoid client with deep pockets.


	5. Curiosity

**GR's Note: **_This one was a pain in the butt to write, for some reason. I wrote it, ended up editing the hell out of it and eventually had to return to an earlier revision of it because I ran out of time. So, in short, it didn't turn out how I wanted it to, but rules are rules and I don't think it's _**_that_**_ bad. Enjoy!_

**Prompt Word**: Curiosity

**Time to Finish**: 4 hours

**Listened to**: Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars , Hellogoodbye – Here (In Your Arms)

**Part 5: Curiosity**

Confusion breeds curiosity, the inexplicable need to understand what's not immediately obvious to oneself. In turn, curiosity can be an extremely potent distraction, sometimes more so than even the confusion it came from. Her ex-husband had only ever kissed her once, on their wedding day, just like her new husband. The biggest difference between the two was that for the first time, she had married for love, whereas the second was purely a cover for a mission she requested. So, why had the second felt so much more real and natural, so much more than a dutiful peck on the lips? It shouldn't have, and the realization had gotten her into trouble while she was confused and trying to figure out why.

"Two rooms for you and your daughter, sir?" The greasy, pallid young man behind the counter adjusted a pair of dirty old glasses, pointedly letting his eyes roam up and down the young pink-haired woman's small body as his nasal voice lingered over the word 'daughter'. Unsettled by the disturbing gaze she was the unwilling recipient of, she hurriedly buried her face in the curve of her partner's neck from her perch on his back. She had sprained her ankle a short distance from the seedy excuse for a town and she hadn't had enough chakra at the time to heal herself. Now they were behind schedule, stuck in civilian clothes and he was carrying her on his back like a small child, all a result of her own actions.

"One room for me and my wife will be just fine, thanks." The friendly eye crease visible over her silver-haired mission partner's mask didn't mesh at all with the unkind edge tainting his voice and the other man simply raised an eyebrow as he continued to leer at the pink-haired girl. She shrank down further behind Kakashi, attempting to hide as much of her body as possible while he took the dirty brass key that was scooted across the counter at him.

"End of the hall on the right side. Enjoy your night." The plainly suggestive tone he used made Sakura feel like she needed to scrub herself with a rough wire brush to remove the words from her skin as the two set off for the room, glad for even the slightest comfort after spending three nights sleeping in trees and on hard ground. Once they were out of earshot of the front desk, Kakashi felt the need to warn his companion of a few things.

"Alright, listen carefully. The room is likely going to be bugged and videotaped, so we won't be able to talk freely in there." The young girl nodded, disgusted but not surprised that the sleazy looking hotel manager would set up equipment to spy on the rooms, to spy on his customers when they changed or bathed... or worse.

"Ninja aren't well thought of here, so wait to heal yourself until we're out of town tomorrow. Don't breathe a word about anything involving the mission, don't use our real names and certainly don't say a word about the village. Do you remember our names?" He shifted her weight slightly as he stood outside the room door, key poised just outside of the lock as he awaited her response.

"Takahashi Taro and Hana." He nodded, unlocking the door and immediately flicking on the yellowish overhead light to illuminate the room in a dingy glow. It was fairly clean, if not very well maintained. The mirror at the end of the sunken double bed was cracked in several places, the walls and furniture were stained a sick yellowish brown with nicotine, the brown carpet was worn right down the the backing in places and she could smell the stale cigarette smoke hanging in the air around them. Gently, he took her and set her down on the bed, mindful of her carefully bandaged foot while he did so.

"Good girl. Get ready for bed, we've got a long day tomorrow." Casually he retreated to the washroom, leaving her to herself to change, if she was so inclined. Cautiously she slid off the bed and dropped their backpacks on the ground, hopping over to the mirror on one foot to take a look at herself. Lifting up the hem of her pink t-shirt to expose the smooth skin of her abdomen above her jeans, she rubbed the pads of her fingers lightly over it. She knew she wouldn't be showing for a while yet, but she couldn't help checking all the same.

Turning her attention to the rest of her appearance, she dropped her shirt and let her fingers wander to her hair, taking down the plaited pigtails that had been keeping her hair our of her face for several days now. Tousling the waves out of her normally straight pink locks, she jumped slightly as another hand took over for her and she was cradled against her partner's chest, causing her to flush slightly. She still hadn't figured out the answer to the question that had been nagging at her, distracting her enough to lose her footing and fall right out of the trees when they had been traveling. It had been her own fault that she sprained her ankle that afternoon, all because she couldn't fathom why she had actually enjoyed a kiss from her ex-sensei and current friend, especially more than she had from the man she actually loved.

"There are two cameras in the bathroom and three in here, so it's entirely up to you if you want to get changed, but I don't recommend it." His voice was little more than a whisper, no doubt to avoid any microphones in the room picking up what he was saying under the pretense of giving his wife a kiss on the cheek. She shook her head gently, flushing even more. There was no way she was stripping for some greasy little creep who looked like a mishmash of every visual description for sex offenders and perverts in the book, she could stay in her clothes.

"I'm alright sleeping like this. Go lay down, I'll fix your shoulders, Taro-kun." Her voice was barely louder than his had been, but she didn't quite trust herself not to get picked up on the microphones. The look he gave her in the mirror was a curious one, and she smiled sweetly at his reflection. She wasn't exactly as light as she looked, and she knew it.

"Go back to bed, I'm going to shut the light, Hana-chan." Blowing a strand of hair out of her face in slight irritation at his hesitance to accept medical treatment, she hopped back to the bed and climbed onto the mattress just before the room was cast into darkness. She felt the mattress shift beside her as he flopped out onto it and flushed at the thought of actually sharing a bed. Sasuke had never once even entertained the idea, and she honestly wasn't sure how to handle her current situation.

"Take off your sweater and lay down on your stomach so I can give you a massage. I know your shoulders will be killing you in the morning if you don't." After considering it carefully, he decided that there wouldn't be any harm in it and she watched him remove his sweater s her eyes adjusted to the dark room. Slowly she scooted over to kneel beside him and he sprawled out onto his stomach, mercifully still wearing his undershirt. She was already a little offput by her newly changed perception of the man before her and she didn't think changing it any farther would be a very healthy idea.

Though she was extremely careful not to let the glow of her chakra be seen even by herself, she felt slightly bad for outright disobeying orders as she pushed small bursts of energy into his loosening muscles to make things easier on them both. He stiffened up at first, probably to berate her for not listening, but shortly decided that she was an extremely careful medic and wouldn't do anything to give them away, relaxing under the ministrations of her small but skilled hands once again.

For the first time while he was being treated by her, he noticed something odd. She hummed while she worked. The tune was soft and sweet, a song he had never heard before, and judging from the look of unbroken concentration he could see on her face, she probably didn't have any idea that she was even doing it. Inwardly he couldn't help but wonder how many other odd little quirks she had that he hadn't found out about yet.

"Hold still for a moment." She got up from her spot beside him and moved to straddle his lower back, careful to rest most of her weight on her legs as she tackled the more difficult knots in his neck and shoulders. She smiled at the soft sigh that escaped him when she loosened a particularly tense muscle group, a wave of genuine happiness washing over her at feeling needed, useful. She continued until the copy nin was relaxed enough that he would fall asleep any moment before deciding that nothing more could be done and swinging her leg back over him, rolling so that she lay on her back beside him, head on the pillows.

Exhausted, she wanted to succumb to sleep but found herself watching her companion, amazed at how serene he looked in his drowsy state, even with his mask still on. She was too tired to respond with anything more than mild shock when he leaned over and pressed his lips against hers before laying back down on his side facing her, a contented smile on his face.

"W-what was that for?!" She touched her lips gently, a blush roaming up over her cheeks as she looked back at the quizzical expression on her partner's face.

"He never kissed you good night?" Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach and she pouted slightly, turning away from him to hide how much his offhand inquiry bothered her.

"He kissed me once." She was far too close to tears to even venture a glance at her friend, though if she had she would have been met with the briefest flash of guilt before his expression turned to one of concern. Reaching out, he gently rubbed her arm, trying to comfort her the best he knew how to when a disturbing revelation struck him.

"How did you two...?" He didn't finish his inquiry before she started shaking and sniffling. Secretly he hoped as he went silent that she didn't progress to outright crying, because he didn't honestly have any clue how to help her if she did.

"I... don't want to talk about it." Feeling a sharp pang of guilt for bringing it up in the first place, he leaned forward and pulled her to him, shocking her right out of it.

"W-what are you doing?" He ran his other hand through her hair without letting go of her and rubbed her arm gently while he settled back into his own pillows.

"...I forgot Tama-chan at home." Freezing with an utterly dumbstruck expression on her face, the first thing that crossed her mind was that he was kidding. The alternative was just weird.

"That stupid stuffed wolf I got you when you were sick with the flu a few years back? What does he have to do with anything?!" She squirmed a bit in an attempt to break his grip, but he only held her tighter to him, murmuring a sleepy response into her shoulder.

"I got used to sleeping with her." She stopped and relaxed a bit, knowing that he wouldn't let her budge. Slightly bewildered at the odd piece of information she had just been given, she had to stop and wonder how that little tidbit had escaped her. Admittedly, she didn't know a whole lot about him by any stretch of the imagination, but who knew he slept with a stuffed animal? One that she had given him in jest, to cheer him up no less!

"Oh...alright then, I guess... Good night... Taro-kun." Being cuddled against him like she was, she had to admit that it felt good, just like the goodnight kiss. It was nice feeling needed, so she was curious... what would it feel like to spend the rest of her life like this? Snuggled in the arms of someone who needed her? Not as a substitute for a stuffed wolf of course, but as herself?


	6. Clarity

**GR's Note: **_I had a lot of problems starting this one, probably because I had a lot of problems trying to find music that fit the theme I was going for before I started. I eventually just settled on my 'angry' playlist and this was what came out. Once I __did__ start though, the story flowed like water. Easiest chapter to write so far. Loads different than what I had originally intended, but I like it anyway. In a way it's probably better than what I had intended... We get to see Sasuke's view on what happened rather than Sakura's. Anyway, read and review, let me know what you think! Kisses!_

**Prompt Word**: Reflection

**Time to Finish**: 3 1/2 hours

**Listened to**: A **lot** of 'angry' music (Think Disturbed and Godsmack and you've got the idea)

**Text Formatting:**

Normal : Normal

_Italics : Memory/Flashback_

**Bold/Underline : Emphasis**

**Part 6: Clarity**

An image, that's all. An image of ourselves and sometimes others that we can look back and see, to varying degrees of distortion depending on our medium. That's all a reflection is, it can never be real and you don't always see it with any true clarity. You also never see the same thing as anyone else even if you're both looking at exactly the same thing, no matter how hard you both may try.

He sat on the railing of the red bridge, the old familiar meeting place of his team, elbows on his knees as he rested his chin upon the backs of his interlaced fingers. To all outside appearances he just looked as though he was watching unnamed flower petals float on the water's surface and disappear beneath his perch, but to those who knew him well, it was clear that he was caught up in his thoughts, brooding over his thoughts as he had done nearly constantly when he was younger. Specifically though, he was brooding over her.

His delicate pink-haired blossom, admittedly weak and yet still too obstinate and headstrong. She had been easy to lead along by a leash for a time, but had never truly understood her duty to him as his wife. She had even tried to tell him that she loved him, but all the while she was seeing other men behind his back and lying to his face about it.

--

_"Where have you been?" He had waited for her to come home that night, having found something in her room a few days previous that he shouldn't have and having seen something that very night that his possessive had taken as confirmation of things that her best friend had been concerned about enough to tell him._

_"I don't remember being set a curfew. Just because you left my birthday party early didn't mean that I had to." His temper only rose further at the disagreeable look she wore upon her face and the challenging tone her voice had taken on as she addressed him. Dropping the glass vial he held in his hand onto the wood table between them, he circled around it to approach her._

_"Care to explain what this is?" Her eyes flickered to the the vial rolling back and forth along a groove in the wood grain before hardening and looking back up at him._

_"You know I'm on birth control. Why were you going through my things, Sasuke-kun?" He dropped the only other thing he was carrying at the moment, but it made no sound as it tumbled onto the wooden tabletop as he began to advance on her._

_"I thought I told you to quit. What's the point of keeping a wife who serves no purpose?" Her gaze turned apprehensive as she started backing away from, her eyes darting with some uncertainty towards the dark blue blot of fabric he had dropped onto the table, no doubt recognizing it._

_"And __**I**__ thought __**I**__ was clear when I said that I wasn't ready for children yet! What were you doing going through my things, Sasuke?!" He tapped the fabric with one finger, still gaining ground on his wife as she decided to stop circling the table and started to back away towards the door. She never saw him draw the kunai in his hand as his anger started to reach the boiling point._

_"How long have you two been seeing each other right under my nose? I'm surprised that you'd be so bold about your interaction with him right in front of me though. I can't say that was a very smart move on your part, Sakura." We watched the cogs turn in her head and her jaw drop in raw fear as she made the connection between the sweater on the table and what he was saying._

_"You think I'm cheating on you?! How can you think that?! And with Kakashi no less! It was just a dance, Sasuke, you're making a big deal over nothi-" He hadn't even realized that he had struck out at her until she fell back against the door, silent, beside the thin line of cast off blood glistening on the wood. He didn't regret it though, not even when she turned her face back to look at him, her eyes dark with pain as blood streamed down her pale face, into the crack between her plump pink lips and down onto her chin and smooth white neck._

_"Liar." It was the only thing he said in response to her denial, but he was right, he knew it. She was beautiful, delicate and elegant, but she was a deceitful tramp at the same time. Sharing another man's bed at the same time as she was married to him, she deserved everything she got._

_Without another word to him she left the house, but only because he let her. He knew where she was bound to be going and it only took him a moment to decide that he needed someone new. Someone who had never once denied him and never would, he was sure. It didn't matter that at the time she was dating and living with his supposed best friend, she'd jump on the opportunity and the blond idiot she was with would understand, eventually._

_--_

"Sasuke, what are you doing out here? I'm sure your wife and daughter need your company more than your reflection does." He barely paid any attention to the lazy jounin that slowly approached him, no doubt on behalf of his teammate. Surprising that he would do something as troublesome as come looking for him though.

"Do you give up that ridiculous pastime of cloud watching just because someone asks you to? Get out of my face and mind your own damn business." The pony-tailed man simply shrugged as he walked right past Sasuke, crossing the bridge and continuing on out of sight towards his intended destination. Apparently it was too troublesome to bother saying anything more, but that suited Sasuke just fine. Being left to his reflections was exactly what he wanted.

_--_

_"Going out celebrating?" She froze in front of the mirror, staring now at his reflection rather than her own. Inwardly, he couldn't help think that finally the outside matched the inside. Dolled up as she was in that short red dress, she looked like the lying whore he knew she was._

_"Tenten and Hinata invited me out for my birthday this year, that's all. I wont be back late." She was lying to him again, just like she always did. She was going out to be with __him__ again. She was going to flaunt her body to him like the harlot she had become and she was lying right to her husband's face about it. She didn't even have time to turn back to tending her hair before he darted across the room, roughly grabbing her wrist and tossing her onto her bed like she weighed nothing._

_"I think you're staying in tonight, Sakura." He hadn't bothered to touch her in such a way in a year and a day, the night before her last birthday, but he remembered exactly how she fought his touch before. He activated his unique bloodline trait to paralyze her this time, just as he inevitably did every other time when she had started to fight him, and he made sure she knew what was coming. He could see the fear in her pale green eyes as he descended upon her unwilling body, and thrived upon her silent screaming as he took her roughly, reminding her that she was __his__ wife still, even if that was a title she would be relinquishing shortly. Well before his mistress gave birth._

_She left the house that night when he finally released her, bruised and lacerated in places that only he should be seeing. He knew where she went, of course. She always went to the same place, the same person. Once again, he let her leave. He let her return to her lover's arms, if only to let him see the marks that had been left on her. If only to remind him of who she really belonged to._

_--_

She thought he didn't know. She thought he wouldn't notice. But he did know, and he had noticed. He remembered the symptoms from the early stages of Ino's own pregnancy; the sickness, the increasing lethargy... his unfaithful cherry blossom had gotten herself pregnant. God only knew who the father might be. She had done it to spite him, he knew. Despite her aggressive denial of wanting any children just yet, she had taken another man's child into her body. He knew it from her increasingly secretive behavior, her recent inability to look him in the eye and most of all, what she had done to her replacement.

She was responsible for his son's death, his daughter's blindness and the damage to her stand-in's body that would prevent her from bearing him any more children. Sakura had been angry with him and had decided to ruin his only goal in life, simply to spite him.

But she was going to pay for it.

If she or her ill-begotten bastard child ever set foot within the village again after running away from what she had done to him, he would make sure she suffered the same loss that he did. If she ever showed her pathetically scarred face to him again, she was going to suffer for it.


	7. Frailty

**GR's Note:**_ While I had no internet, my tutor was sending me prompts through e-mail, because he's temporarily away on a trip. When I finally got to the library to check my e-mail, I had three prompts already in my inbox and because of time constraints I combined the first two into one for this part. Anyway, read and review, let me know what you think! Kisses!_

**Prompt Word**: Double Prompt! Indecision / Acceptance

**Time to Finish**: 6 hours

**Listened to**: Late 80's/Early 90's love songs (Think Savage Garden and Foreigner)

**Part 7: Frailty**

No matter how difficult it can be to come to a decision, it's always a good idea to accept that no matter what you do, you can't always make the right ones. Once that's out of the way, remember to put the bad ones behind you and move on with the good ones.

_"You know, I would kill for my husband to look at me like that. You're so lucky." _The pink-haired kunoichi snapped out of her dazed thoughts to stare at their client as her partner was dismissed to their quarters, leaving her behind. The low tone that the young woman used along with the way she leaned in towards the kunoichi indicated with no uncertainty that the comment had been meant for her ears alone. Trying to puzzle out what the lady could mean, Sakura examined her up and down in incredulity to determine if she was being sarcastic, from the top of her pretty ash blond head to her luminously white face, to her vibrantly opalescent eyes. The woman may have looked like a ghost, but as far as Sakura could tell, she was being honest.

"I don't know what you mean, Hyuuga-sama." Eyes as pale as her skin, the only indicator that she was in any way related to the highest ranking of Konoha nobility, flashed with skepticism as she regarded the woman that Tsunade had seen fit to send in response to her family's request. Honestly, she saw nothing remarkable before her. A petite, quiet woman who seemed too shy to be a shinobi, forget being the jounin level kunoichi that she needed. In fact, Sakura reminded her of Hiashi-sama's oldest daughter, if not quite so extreme in her timidity. If things didn't work out the way things were supposed to go, she'd be a perfect lure, in any case.

"He obviously cares for you very much. If I was so lucky, you wouldn't be here." Sakura shook her head softly, attracting her client's gaze to strands of pink hair that fell out from under the hood of her sweater and glowed a beautiful shade of lavender in the moonlight. Being told she was cared for by her older teammate provoked a strange feeling in Sakura's chest, unlike anything she had ever experienced before and without a doubt something that she couldn't attach a name to.

"While I don't doubt that he cares for me as a friend, seeing as we've known each other for eleven years and were teammates for at least six of those, we're husband and wife now only because that was what the mission called for." She recited her piece mechanically, as if reading a prompt, while her client raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Hyuuga Haruka was no idiot, and though she had never made such a request in her mission statement, she didn't say anything. Things didn't add up and she simply assumed that the hokage was up to something, most likely meddling with the lives of the two shinobi that she had been sent to take care of her little problem. Honestly, it wasn't any of her business, so long as the job got done.

While Haruka giggled only inwardly at Tsunade's attempt at matchmaking, once again Sakura's thoughts had been carried away to some other plane of existence, where the questions that had been plaguing her incessantly for the last to weeks resided and begged to be answered. Try as she might, Sakura couldn't answer anything, nor could she find it in her to completely ignore it all. But, the more she tried to understand, the less she ended up grasping and it was ultimately driving her farther and farther into distraction and worse.

"I see. The child isn't his then?" Remembering her manners, Sakura only shook her head vaguely, aware that Tsunade would have informed their client of her condition. Absently, she ran her fingers over the fabric of her sweater where it rested directly over her abdomen, wondering if the baby might not look like it's father, if maybe she could pass it off as the result of exactly what Sasuke had accused her of on so many occasions.

"That has no relevancy to the mission, Hyuuga-sama. Now, can we please get back on topic and finish with this? I thought Wind Country was supposed to be warm..." It was unlike the pink-haired girl to be so blunt with her clients, but the conversation had taken a turn into territory that she didn't particularly wish to delve any deeper into. Seeing exactly this, the ashen haired woman stepped out of the marble gazebo that had been the meeting place for the three and lifted her long skirts in preparation for the walk back to the mansion.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize the subject was off-limits. In any case, please follow me." Sakura nodded silently and followed closely behind on the colorfully paved path, hugging her body tightly through the thin crimson layer that was her only barrier against the cold night air. Shinobi instinct kicking in, Sakura knew to carefully observe what she could as she passed through the expansive gardens, taking note of the scenery she would undoubtedly be spending a fair amount of time in.

"Exactly as it states in the mission scroll, you and your partner will be posing as civilians that I've hired while my husband is away. Your objective is to catch him red-handed, so to speak, because unfortunately I haven't been able too, mostly because of the difference in our skill levels. He is, as I stated earlier, a jounin, though I'll warn you that he easily has the potential to be an ANBU operative, whereas I never made it past chuunin rank." Sakura nodded politely, though she knew all this already. It may not exactly have looked like it, but she had been listening earlier when she went through it all the first time. They were entering the mansion now, dark except for a few lit windows on the upper floors. Kakashi would be in their room already, probably exhausted. Her restlessness had gotten the better of her last night and she hadn't let them stop for more than a short break, so neither of them had slept in nearly forty-eight hours. She knew at least that she was tired, whether her partner was or not, but she had her pride and wouldn't ask her client to delay her explanations until the next day. They were already late because of her.

"If you don't mind me asking, why the mission? If you're so sure he's cheating on you, why shell out the cash for two shinobi to prove it?" The woman stiffened in front of Sakura, her gait slowing to a standstill before she looked back with a thoroughly bitter expression on her face.

"I can't dissolve my marriage without a very good reason and evidence to back it up. I can't get that evidence myself and I'd rather not be trapped here in a loveless relationship for the rest of my life, so I don't have any choice." Tilting her head to one side, Sakura bit her lip as the ache of understanding passed over her and the two began moving again.

"You know, my mother always told me that expecting love from any man was a fruitless pursuit. Maybe your expectations for your husband are just too high." Turning her head to watch Sakura while they walked together, the ashen haired woman couldn't help but gaze curiously at her downcast face.

"Being an arranged marriage, I wasn't really expecting love from it, in truth. Fidelity, respect and some manner of affection, however, I do expect and am not getting. As far as what your mother thinks, you shouldn't believe her. I know for a fact that men are capable of love, it can just be a lot more difficult for them to express it than it is for us." Sakura frowned as they ascended a large set of stairs, not looking up to the woman walking before her. Her own experience was too uncannily close to her mother's to really think otherwise without her own proof, something she hadn't ever been provided with, not from Sasuke. Not that she wouldn't admit that the idea was a nice one, she just couldn't realistically apply it to her life.

"Tsunade-sama mentioned that you were a medic, so I'll be setting you up in here. Honestly, you shouldn't have a whole lot to do, but we'll have to actually make it look like you're working here. Nothing more difficult than basic first aid for the kids and the servants should be the most common thing you'll deal with. I shouldn't have to say it again, but you're civilians, so no chakra. Appropriate wardrobes have been set up in your room according to the measurements Tsunade-sama sent me and I've set out hair dye and contacts to change your appearance while you're here. I don't want my husband recognizing you from the bingo books or something." Sakura nodded absently as she looked up from the floor to examine the room that the two woman had entered. It was clean, neat and very obviously a miniature infirmary. The walls were painted a pale yellow color that sickened her, reminding her of her former rival's hair color and the tiled floor was even worse, a dark patterned blue that matched the color Sasuke insisted on wearing at all times. If she would have been able to look at the room objectively, she would have found the color combination comfortable and pleasing to the eye, easing the room away from the sterile feel of a normal hospital room, she just couldn't manage to do it. Seeing that the room was well-stocked, Sakura stepped back out of the room to catch her breath and clear her head. She'd have to get used to being in there, so she would have to find a way to deal with the colors inside without making herself sick.

"Your room's upstairs. Follow me." Sakura numbly followed her up another flight of stairs and down the labyrinthine hallways until they stopped in front of a lone door, the only one situated in the short hallway they were standing in.

"Here it is. Get some rest and spend tomorrow getting yourself acquainted with the grounds. You'll start your real work when my husband gets back, four days from now. Goodnight, Sakura." Leaning forward in a polite bow, Sakura quietly bid the blond woman goodnight before she opened the door silently and slipped inside the room.

The room was darkened and she could hear the soft, unbroken breathing of her partner coming from where she could faintly discern the outline of their bed, confirming her suspicions that he had gone to sleep without waiting for her. Placing her pack on the floor at her feet she slowly approached him, careful not to make a sound. As her eyes adjusted to the dimness in the room, she found herself able to observe him more closely, noting first that his hair was still damp and still decidedly silver, indicating that he hadn't used the dye yet. He also wasn't clad in the normal jounin uniform she was used to him sleeping in. Of course she knew that he couldn't wear the uniform, but it was still strange for her to see Kakashi in only a white t-shirt and pale pajama bottoms after eleven years of seeing him in nothing but blue sweats and an olive green flak vest. As well, though she couldn't see any details of his exposed face at the moment, just knowing that he was maskless sort of felt like cheating.

Pulling off her sweater and setting it aside, she continued to watch her partner sleep peacefully, undisturbed by the feelings that even then she was attempting to puzzle her way through and make sense of, with little success. What exactly was it she felt for him? It was far from the same sense of friendship she felt towards Naruto, Yamato or Sai, while at the same time it obviously was a lot closer than the familial bond she had developed with Tsunade, Shizune and her colleagues at the hospital. It wasn't negative in the slightest and she couldn't find any way to compare it to her feelings for Sasuke, it would be like comparing hot and cold; impossible. So, where did that leave her?

Finally averting her gaze she continued to disrobe, first shedding her flimsy pink t-shirt and the plain cotton bra underneath before moving to the worn out blue jeans and sliding them off of her hips. She had lost so much weight in the past few weeks that the previously snug pants could be pushed down without even being undone, a fact that was beginning to worry her, though not as much as something else she couldn't quite explain. She was showing already, if only slightly. At only six weeks in, that should have been literally impossible, but what troubled her about it was the argument she had had with Tsunade when she did her check up before they left. There was no possible way that she could have conceived the child within her two weeks before her birthday, but Tsunade was quite adamant that at the time of her check up, she had already six weeks pregnant, give or take a couple of days. Under normal circumstances, she would never doubt a word her mentor said to her, but she simply couldn't believe these ones... and yet, she was already showing the beginnings of her pregnancy. If Tsunade was correct and she was now eight weeks pregnant rather than six, it was a little more believable when paired with her recent weight loss that she would show a little, but there was still one very big, gaping hole in that theory; despite what Sasuke had been led to believe, Sakura was not an unfaithful wife, and he had only bothered to do anything to her once in the entirety of the last year, since the night before her twenty second birthday party. Something wasn't right and not only did it worry and frighten her, she had no plausible explanation for any of it.

Shaking her head to clear it for the time being, she stepped out of the faded denim pooled around her feet, clothed in only white socks and a threadbare pair of pink panties, making her way to the dresser in the room to search it for a pair of pajamas or a nightgown.

Everything in the dresser and the nearby wardrobe was unmistakably new and tailored quite closely to their sizes, though she really had to question the tastes of whoever had filled them, as they apparently didn't realize that lace wasn't exactly the most comfortable material to create a nightgown out of, nor did they realize that a nightgown so short would barely cover her panties, forget anything lower than that. Bypassing the strange excuse for sleepwear and continuing on, Sakura couldn't hide her confusion when she realized that there was not a single piece of practical clothing among all of the articles geared towards her. Even among the day wear, there wasn't much that she would have picked out for herself. Her entire selection was simply a mixture of ankle-length dresses and skirts like the lady had been wearing earlier, button-down blouses and sweaters, there wasn't a single pair of shoes with any less than an inch of heel and she could count on one hand the number of undergarments that came even close to resembling the simplistic cuts and fabrics she was used to.

Completely flabbergasted and unsure of what to do, Sakura kept returning to the questionable nightwear, entranced by the myriad colors and becoming curious about the basis of their appeal. Reaching out to gently run her fingers along the length of one in particular that caught her eye, the soft smoothness of the pale light-reflecting fabric against her rough, calloused fingers pushed her to lift the garment out of the drawer and hold it up against her frame. Deciding that she liked the inherent femininity of the delicate slip, she painstakingly searched the drawer for a similarly pale and shiny pair of panties to wear with it.

Retreating to the attached washroom with one more glance at her partner to assure herself that he remained asleep, Sakura shut the door before turning on the light. Smiling gratefully at the fluffy white towel and washcloth sitting beside a bottle of hair dye that had been left on the counter top for her, she inwardly thanked Kakashi's thoughtfulness, something that she had recently begun to realize that he had never once neglected to show her. Maybe... there was some truth to the lady's words after all. Even so however, Sakura still wasn't sure what to do about it, as unsure of her own feelings as she was.

Stepping into the shower and letting the burning hot water strike her face and body as she turned on the stream to full blast, she went went about resuming the emotional dissection that she had been attempting since before they had even left Konoha while she washed herself mindlessly. Instead of focusing her thoughts solely on Kakashi, a practice she had taken up that wasn't gaining her much progress either way, she decided to muse on her former husband and the dynamics of their relationship.

She knew he didn't love her, not now and not ever, but that never stopped her from trying to teach him how. In return, he had used her and tossed her aside like a child who's grown bored of a toy, only to replace her with a more obedient and willing stand-in.

As the soapy washcloth absently scrubbed circles over her thighs, she remembered the pale white marks that crisscrossed the skin there and continued on up her body without a pattern, shivering despite the heat at the memory of the injuries that had caused them; injuries that had taken her days to heal completely. He never failed to instill some level of fear in her, not after their first night together and the unbearable pain it brought, but that fear had only grown worse and worse as time went on... right up until she couldn't be anywhere in the house they shared without glancing over her shoulder every few moments, wary of him and the pain he brought with him. How could she love someone who caused her so much fear and pain? Maybe she didn't.

_Maybe she didn't love him anymore_.

The abrupt realization hit her like a ton of bricks, leaving her to stare at the rippling water on the shower floor as it flowed into the drain, her thoughts stunned into silence by her own logic.

Maybe she didn't love him. Maybe she never really had. Where did that leave her?

She cared about him, for sure, but not the same as her former teammates, and especially not the same as she did Kakashi. Having had time away from him, even just these last few weeks, had given her a bit of insight on what she wanted out of a relationship and what she hadn't been getting. Of course, she had no doubt that Kakashi was more than a little bit to blame for that and the more she found herself thinking about it now, the more she suspected that his 'act' seemed a bit too sincere to be just that.

Stepping out of the stream that had gone from nearly scalding to completely frigid while she had stood and stared at at the tiles lost in thought, Sakura took the fluffy towel and wrapped it around herself to dry her chilled skin. She dried herself off slowly and methodically, stalling for time before she would have to get dressed and go crawl into bed next to the man who had been doing nothing but confuse her to no end over the last couple weeks.

Obviously he wasn't somebody that she minded talking to or spending time with, otherwise she wouldn't so easily label him as one of her closest friends. They had actually become a lot closer since she turned seventeen, after she had become a senior medic and he had been reinstated as an ANBU, back when he started to outright refuse any medical treatment other than hers. After her parents passed, he always seemed to be around when she needed someone to be with, and unlike most he wasn't picky about her cooking. He might be a pervert with a penchant for lame excuses and being late, but at the same time he was thoughtful, trustworthy and hadn't ever let her down.

They were definitely a far cry from the possessive, clingy sensation she had once associated with Sasuke and defined as love, her feelings for Kakashi. They were actually closer to a warm, all-encompassing fuzzy feeling that made her feel safe and comfortable, like putting on a fluffy sweater or cuddling into a heavy blanket, whereas her old definition of love was more like pulling a load of laundry out of the dryer and realizing that she forgot to add one of those anti-static sheets, so all her socks stuck together. So, in reality, what did she want? A warm fuzzy blanket or staticky socks?

Smiling at her own stupid analogies while she gently worked her fingers through her damp hair to untangle it, the smile promptly slid off her face as she made what should have been a very obvious realization. She had never seen Kakashi with any woman more than once and hadn't ever heard him express any interest in ever having kids, either. So much for the fuzzy blanket. What possible interest could he have in her, six...or possibly eight weeks pregnant with a kid that wasn't his? She was misreading the signs, led on by a glimmer of hope sparked by an inaccurate observation made by a woman she had only just met. She felt like an idiot.

Dejected and no longer in the mood to even think, Sakura only wanted to sleep now, though not necessarily next to her friend. Slipping into the nightgown and panties she had picked out and only now noticing that they were a pretty pastel pink color, she set the bathroom in order again and finally shut the light before entering the bedroom once again. She let her eyes adjust to the dark room before quietly approaching the bed itself and noting with only a little dismay that the man she had compared to a blanket was sprawled over the entirety of their bed in a startlingly accurate imitation of one, no longer breathing evenly but instead snoring softly.

Biting her lip to keep the amusing picture he made from making her laugh, she silently sat down on the bed, her small body barely even making a dip in the firm mattress as she scooted over to sit a bit closer to him. She couldn't see any real detail about his face in the dark, but from what she could see, she had to admit that he wasn't bad-looking. His face was all clean, straight lines and she couldn't see any obvious deformity at all, other than the scar over his left eye and cheek. Even that wasn't a deformity as much as it was just another feature of his face, because unlike hers, his looked like it belonged there, like it had always been there. It didn't look out of place at all.

Thoughtfully, she reached over and brushed away the longer hair that fell over his scarred cheek with the lightest of touches, exposing his entire face to her. Asleep, he looked truly peaceful, in a way that even his normally laid-back attitude couldn't portray and the sight of such serenity on his face calmed her, made her happy to think that she was one of the very few who would ever see him this way.

Without waking, as if in reaction to her body heat, Kakashi rolled towards her, wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzling his face into the curve of her neck as if he had done so a million times before, as if he belonged there. Sighing softly in acceptance while letting the ghost of a smile linger over her lips, Sakura no longer bothered resisting when he pulled her down like he did every other night since they started traveling as civilians, though usually he was fully conscious when he did it. She knew by now that even had she wanted to, his grip was too strong for her to break, as far behind as she was on her normal training and that didn't change when he slept, either. Now, she simply let herself enjoy it and poked fun at his inability to sleep alone once they woke up.

Gently, she pushed back his hair again and pressed her lips against his forehead, giving him the goodnight kiss that he hadn't been awake to seek out from her tonight before she softly rested her cheek on the top of his head and curled up into a comfortable sleeping position.

It would have to be something she cleared up with him in the morning, his intentions towards her. As much as she enjoyed this... closeness, she couldn't help but feel like they weren't quite on the same page about it and it bothered her a little. She didn't know what she wanted to happen between them and honestly, the possibilities scared her.

_As long as history wouldn't repeat itself..._


	8. Infidelity

**GR's Note: **_ This chapter is supposed to have a fairly happy feel to it, although reading back over it I guess I didn't do too well on that... I'm just not really used to writing fluff, so... Sorry. I'm also sorry if these two seem way OOC, I'm not very good at writing Naruto to start with. sweatdrop I guess I kinda wanted to try and give such a dreary and melancholy word a nice twist, maybe something my tutor didn't expect. Anyway, read and review, let me know what you think! Kisses!_

**Prompt Word**: Deceit

**Time to Finish**: 2 hours

**Listened to**: I'm In Heaven (When You Kiss Me) - ATC

**Part 8: Infidelity**

Sometimes we lie for the greater good, because the ones who most need to hear it purposely deafen themselves to the truth.

"Hey there." The woman with pale, shimmering blond locks raised her eyes from the blanketed bundle in her arms and smiled broadly in the direction of the voice, ice blue eyes shining in the dappled early morning light under the tree.

"I almost thought you'd forgotten!" Her mock chastising tone only brought forth a bright laugh from a young blond man as he pushed back spiky and uneven bangs from the sweaty skin of his forehead. Bending down, he eagerly met Ino in a sweet kiss, something he had been waiting all morning for, enough to distract him from his training.

"I'd never forget about you! How's my baby?" The icy-eyed woman's smile turned slightly bittersweet as she handed the quiet bundle to him and he took it gently, pushing aside the blankets a little to see his daughter's sleeping face.

"Tsunade says she might never see and that there's not much we can do about it, because it's a common side effect that soldier pills cause during pregnancy. I'm sorry, if I would've known, I never would have..." She was cut of as a large tanned hand cupped her cheek gently and she instinctively met her lover's lips with her own as he wiped the tear threatening to fall down her cheek.

"It's alright, if you hadn't have done what you did, I would have lost you. She's healthy and you're here, that's all that matters." She smiled once again, rubbing the end of his nose with her own to assure him that she knew he was right. He always seemed to be right, his optimistic outlook always leading him to say exactly what she needed to hear. Smile fading slightly, she reached up to brush back his feather soft blond hair away from impossibly blue eyes, eyes that were deeper than any ocean and yet at the same time brighter than any sky on the sunniest day. Her favorite shade of blue in the whole world.

"I wish there was another way we could have done this. I hate hiding like this, Naruto." Seeing her in such a sad state plucked at the strings of the young man's heart and he wrapped a bare arm around her shoulders, still cradling his daughter in the other as he kissed Ino's forehead.

"It'll be over soon, everything's worked out the way it was supposed to. I never did let Kakashi in on it though, so here's hoping he does what he's supposed to without prompting. The worst of it's over, anyway." The woman bolted upright, nearly jostling the infant on Naruto's arm awake as she placed her hands on violet-clad hips and hissed indignantly at him.

"What do you mean, 'you never let him in on it'?! How the hell did you know he'd follow her on that stupid mission then?!" He grinned, revealing almost fang-like canines as he leaned back on his free hand to see her better, bouncing the infant girl on his arm gently, to keep her calm and quiet.

"I didn't, I assumed. However, I did find out something interesting from Tsunade-baachan when I let her in on the plan so she'd stop treating you like a leper. Sakura's pregnant, and I'd stop eating ramen forever if Kakashi didn't know before they left. He wouldn't have let her go with anyone else, not if he had to maim everyone assigned to the mission before him, not with her in that kind of condition." Ino's jaw dropped as she stared at him absently playing with one of his daughter's short blond curls and she tried to process this little bit of information. It never failed to amaze her how resourceful he could be at times, nor how well he apparently knew his friends. Good thing, too.

"She's... Are you sure?! I mean, do you think it's really a good thing to split them up now?! I mean, I know he's not a fabulous guy, but if he knew he was actually going to be a father..." A loud but merry laugh broke her out of her worried rambling and caused her to stare again, silent.

"She's too far along for Sasuke to be the father, Ino. Baa-chan was more than willing to let me in on everything that she learned when she gave Sakura her last check-up before she left." Ino sat in rapt silence for a moment waiting for him to continue, yet he just continued to play with their daughter who was now trying sleepily to wrap her little fingers around one of her father's own much larger ones.

"Well?! What do you mean, Sasuke's not the father?! Spit it out already!" He grinned again, unwrapping the blanket from the pink-clad infant to spread it on the grass and let the baby wiggle around a bit on her tummy, reveling in the cuteness that was his lover's impatience.

"Patience is a virtue, Ino." She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, though she really didn't mean it. He loved to tease her and she knew it, she was just anxious for some answers.

"So is chastity, Naruto." The sickly sweet tone in her voice caused his eyes to widen slightly at the bold threat she made, and he sat up only to pull her down on top of him as he lay in beside their little girl. She refused to comply completely, keeping her arms crossed as she knelt with a leg on either side of his waist and glaring mildly down at his devious smirk. Her indignant and headstrong nature was one of the things he loved most about her and he wouldn't give it up for the world.

"Alright, alright, I get it. I meant exactly what I said, she's too far along for it to be Sasuke's kid. Baa-chan says that right now she's about eight weeks along, even though she's adamant she can't be more than six. Sasuke was out on that mission to Cloud Country eight weeks ago, remember? I don't think she remembers much about it, but you know when Kakashi and I took her out 'cause we knew we'd be in Lightning Country for her birthday? She went home with him." Ino just rolled her eyes, uncrossing her arms to flick Naruto on the end of his nose.

"That's why you're so sure? Naruto, she stays overnight at his place all the time. It's like... her escape, you know that. You're going to have to give me something better than that." He caught her hand, kissing each perfectly manicured fingernail softly before ghosting faint kisses along her digits and palm to the thin, translucent skin inside of her wrist, the intimate gesture eliciting a faint shiver despite the mid-spring warmth.

"They were both pretty far gone, Ino, and it fits about right for the time-line. I'm willing to bet that her 'escape' went a little farther than normal this time." She bit her knuckle gently before bracing herself with one hand on the ground beside his head to plant a loving kiss on his lips. If it hadn't have been for similar circumstances, she wouldn't be here enjoying the shade on such a beautiful day with her equally beautiful child and the man who would hopefully be the father of all the rest of the children she planned to have.

"So she's pregnant and it's not Sasuke's... what are the chances that Sakura thinks it's his though? Actually, what are the chances that Kakashi knows it's his?" Keeping one eye on their little girl, Naruto returned Ino's affectionate gesture, gently nipping her bottom lip to provoke a peal of girlish giggles and some more... playful responses.

"Like I said, she's adamant that she can't be more than six weeks along, so I don't think she remembers anything. As for Kakashi... I doubt he knows. If he did, he would never have let her leave the village, he's that protective of her. Hopefully, he enlightens her at some point... otherwise the kid's gonna pop out with gray hair like his and they're both going to have heart attacks!" The similar mental picture that entered both of their heads at nearly the same time caused a fit of snorting laughter to erupt from them, and the abruptness combined with the loud volume startled the baby who had nearly fallen asleep again on the blanket beside them. Scrambling to quiet her baby's frightened wails, Ino calmed her voice to a sweet, singsong tone and picked up the squalling infant, whispering old nursery rhymes to soothe her. Naruto's voice joined hers and the girl promptly stopped crying in favor of making more bubbly and joyful sounds.

"She knows who her daddy really is. Don't you, sweetie?" Naruto beamed with pride before kissing both of his favorite girls and softly reaching up to rub Ino's shoulder.

"She should, she sees me more than she sees your husband. Oh, here! Baa-chan gave me these to pass on to you." Ino took the yellow-orange envelope he handed her and deftly opened it with on hand, dumping out it's contents onto the grass beside her. Picking up the lone piece of paper that fell out and scanning it briefly, a bright smile of triumph crossed her face, causing Naruto to wonder what the paper said. She answered the question before he could ask, simply because she knew by now that he'd ask even if it wasn't any of his business.

"Sasuke went and ordered a paternity test behind my back. Surprise, surprise, he failed!" Naruto chuckled and resumed allowing his daughter to play with his fingers.

"Looks like this'll be over sooner than I thought. I actually expected him to wait a little longer before suspecting you of being a cheat." Ino pouted, an action Naruto happened to think was almost as adorable as when she could be made to blush and had no problem proving in the kisses he rained along the side of her neck and shoulder.

"I am not a cheat! I would never have done any of this if Sakura would've opened her damn eyes in the first place and if Sasuke would've just listened to me and not proposed to her in the first place! 'Sakura and Kakashi spend a lot of time together.'. Isn't that what I said to him?! What part of that sounds like 'Go propose to her!', honestly?! Moron..." Nipping at her shoulder both to provoke a soft whimper and to placate her growing temper, Naruto slid his hand under the hem of her purple sweatshirt and around her waist, savoring the silken skin he so loved to touch.

"I know, calm down. Look on the bright side. He assumed Sakura was a cheat and he didn't touch her at all last year, so thinking you're a cheat will at least make sure he doesn't try and steal you out from under my nose again." Mewling softly, Ino shifted into Naruto's arms more comfortably, turning her head to meet his kisses with her own. They couldn't do anything for a few more weeks, but she loved this. The cuddling, the kisses, the talking. He had really grown up and was such a joy to be around anymore, she definitely saw what Hinata had seen in him so many years ago; strength, kindness, compassion... If somebody had told her then that she'd end up falling for the loud blond hokage-wannabe, she'd have outright told them to shove it. Things just never end up the way you expect them to, she was living proof of that.

"All part of the plan, right?" He nodded, reaching around behind her head to pull out her ponytail and let her shiny blond locks fall down past her shoulders. He loved how soft her hair always felt, the sweet scent of her shampoo and conditioner and most of all, he loved how he was the only person she'd let touch it or see it out of the confines of a hair elastic.

"I still say that's the part of the plan I liked the least. I don't like anyone touching you but me." As if to punctuate his little confession of jealousy, Naruto pulled her closer and pulled softly on her earlobe with his teeth, causing her to gasp audibly and start giggling as his breath tickled her neck.

"I don't like anyone touching me but you either, but would you rather try and stick another girl in my place? We needed to get Sakura out of there, she may not have said anything, but you know she was miserable! You know I'm all yours anyway..." She squeaked softly as he pushed aside the collar of her sweater and kissed down her neck to her shoulder, pausing only breifly to nudge aside the strap to her nursing bra.

"I know, and I trust you... And that's your husband coming. He probably already knows I'm here, too... Ready to wrap things up?" He didn't even give her time to answer before he found her pulse and latched on, causing her to let out a seductive moan as he made sure to leave a mark that Sasuke would see.

As much as he loved Sasuke like a brother, he also loved Sakura like a sister and when he had seen the way his almost-little-sister and their old sensei really cared about each other, he had been determined to make sure they both got what they really wanted. Sasuke's proposal had messed everything up for his original plan and later on when the only brother he had ever really had tried to seduce his girlfriend right out from under him, he had been forced to take sides. Sure, as the future hokage it wasn't exactly the most unbiased or responsible thing he could be doing, but Sakura needed his help more than Sasuke deserved it.

Despite the image he projected to everyone who couldn't see deep down, there was a limit to the reaches of Naruto's forgiveness, and Sasuke had hit it already.


	9. Mentality

**GR's Note: **_ Okay, I have two things to point out before the chapter, one being that I wasn't actually given a prompt 'word', I was just told to focus on Kakashi's point of view and give a little insight on that front. The other thing is that I cheated a bit. Normally I'm given four hours, broken into two parts by a half hour break. Strictly speaking, I didn't take that break because I forgot about it and I didn't have anyone around to 'spot' me and make sure I took it. Soooo, technically instead of the four hours normally allotted, I took four and a half hours. My bad. In other news, my tutoring is officially __over__, but Alex will still be giving me prompts until the story comes to a close. He will no longer be serving as my beta though, so if someone would like to volunteer for the position, I would just __love__ it. If you'd be willing to volunteer for Maybe Forever with or instead of this, I'd love that too, because I need new one for that one too... my old one hates me right now and refuses to even read the story anymore. PM, Note or E-mail me if you're interested. Anyway, read and review, let me know what you think! Kisses!_

**Prompt**: Kakashi POV, Introspective

**Time to Finish**: 4 1/2 hours

**Listened to**: Nothing directly related to the theme or feel of the piece. I was listening to a **CSI:NY** marathon from the other room.

**Part 9: Mentality**

Waking up lately had become both a profound pleasure and an unrivaled pain for Kakashi; waking up so near to her, near enough to touch her, to hold her... while at the same time reminded acutely of his wasted confessions and a night it was fairly apparent she couldn't remember.

Now, this morning... it was different, the pained pleasure only compounded as cold gray light filtered past the curtains and across the feminine body wrapped around him, illuminating the scrap of pale pink silk and lace that did little to hide her delicate form from him. The soft skin of her shoulder, where petite arms cradled his head into, was no longer separated from him by a barrier of fabric and now she was not just close enough to touch; she was close enough to taste, bare enough to throw his mind into disarray while his lips and tongue burned to lavish kisses upon the alabaster flesh beneath them once again.

"Good morning." The calm and sleepy greeting was followed by slender fingers trailing through the hair along the back of his neck, just a short gesture meant to point out to him that she was awake. An attempt at loosing lustful thoughts from where they shouldn't be was halted as he went to let go of her, aware that she couldn't escape on her own without hurting him, and his fingers dragged over the soft silk draped over her lower back and waist, lingering through no conscious power of his own.

"You still sound tired." She shifted slightly and his attention was drawn to the smooth and extremely bare leg that lay over his and subsequently to the urge he was forced to ignore as his hands itched to touch the naked limb cradling his thigh and stretching on down to where her toes were brushed the back of his calf.

"I couldn't sleep last night, I had too much on my mind. Actually, I have something to ask you, now that you're awake." Any thoughts that voiced a feeling than concern blanked themselves from his mind, only partly because of her admission of insomnia. As she had shifted away from him, far enough for her to clearly look him in the eye as she talked, his eye had been drawn to the seemingly random pattern of fine white lines and dotted crescents that were clustered about the bare skin of her shoulders, collarbone, neck and chest, even appearing to continue downwards onto the skin covered by her chemise.

"In a moment. Where did these scars come from, Sakura?" She visibly stiffened and let go of him completely to try and cover herself, all of a sudden refusing to meet his piercing gaze. He had a good idea of what her answer to his question would be and he couldn't quite swallow the bitter tang of disgust he felt towards her former husband. He was the only one who would ever injure her like that.

"I-it's not important, I've had them for a while now. Don't worry about them." He tried to brush aside some of her hair to get a better look at her neck, an action which earned him a swat on the hand as she pointedly glared at him.

"Don't lie to me Sakura, it's insulting. Those weren't there before I left for Lightning Country, they're fresh. What did he do to you?" He watched her eyes narrow slightly in something more profound than simple thought as she swept her hair forward over her shoulders and sat up, hiding her scars from his view. She would put it together quickly with the obvious hint he had just dropped her and while it might not have been his idea of the ideal conditions to bring it up to her, the longer he put it off the harder it would get to say anything at all.

He had wanted to say something when he returned from his mission, but he didn't get to see her until after he found out that Sasuke was kicking her out and divorcing her. After making sure that her stuff didn't just get left outside, he went to find her only to see that she didn't react any differently to his presence than she had before. She didn't remember anything, obviously; not the conversation they had, not the promise they made and not the... physical intimacy they had shared. One look at her and he couldn't say anything, she looked like she simply wouldn't be able to handle it, and she hadn't gotten any better as time went on. The first week or so, before the mission, she had alternated between distress and anger at the drop of a hat and without provocation, whereas in the last couple of weeks she had been largely distracted, brooding and uncommunicative. Now might be his only real chance to say anything.

"Sakura..." She shook her head at him, halting his confession with a petite hand held up in front of him indicating silence.

"How did you know that they weren't there eight weeks ago? Actually, forget it, don't answer that. I'm pretty sure I have a good idea about the answer and hearing it said out loud isn't really going to help me." He wasn't exactly sure what to make of it when not only did she not yell at him or try and take his head off, she didn't do a whole lot of anything aside from slide off the bed and start pacing the length of the wood floor beside it, emitting a string of muttered curses that the copy nin could swear he'd never heard from her before. It wasn't until she stomped over to the wardrobe and nearly pulled the door off its hinges that he couldn't take her silence anymore and hopped off the bed himself, nearly catching her fingers in the door as he snapped it shut, forcing her to turn and face him.

"Get out of my way Kakashi, before I do something I'll end up regretting." He didn't budge, one hand firmly planted over the door seam so that she couldn't open it. Her threat didn't mean all that much to him... after all, it would only take three words from her perfect pink lips to figuratively rip out his heart, so whatever she would do to his physical body paled in comparison.

"And let you get dressed so that you can take off and attempt to avoid me all day? Wishful thinking. We need to talk about this." Celadon eyes glinted in anger and reflected back to him an accusation of hypocrisy that he was undoubtedly deserving of, but she kept her voice low, most likely to avoid any prying ears that might pass their door.

"Talk about this?! My best friend, someone I trusted, **knocked me up** and you think I want to talk?!" The emphasis on her words clearly advertised that they were meant to hurt, each of the relevant ones said pointedly and separately, each like a stab to his chest. Though the effect brought down was more akin to shock than actual pain, it was still several seconds before he brought himself back enough to realize that she was still talking. "...though I suppose I should be thanking you. If you hadn't have, two weeks later Sasuke would have. Just leave me alone right now, Kakashi, I don't want to talk to you." Her voice had begun to crack under the strain of impending tears by the time she turned her back on him, while an emotion he could only label as a mix between fear and dread washed over him to replace the shock. Knowing every second was going to count, he snapped the wardrobe door shut again, thwarting any leeway she had made against his loosened grip.

"All the more reason we **need** to talk. You can't stay mad at me forever." If he hadn't heard himself right then, he would never have believed that his voice could shake, it had been years since he felt fear for any reason. She didn't try and open the door again though, and Kakashi was barely able to move fast enough to stop her from falling to the floor, crying and shaking like a leaf. She made no move to push him away, and so gratefully he stayed, holding her while she let it out.

It seemed like forever before she fell silent, but it still wasn't quite enough time for him to wrap his head around what had just happened. She had just pegged him as the father of her child, a weighty accusation he was sure she wouldn't make without being damn sure she was right, not even in anger. Not that he was exactly adverse to the thought of having children, but that was the key word: eventually. He hadn't been expecting it for several years, if ever, but now...

"Sakura, think you can calm down enough to hear me out?" Her soft hiccuping slowed and she rubbed her cheeks with the back of her hand, wiping away the stream of tears there and reddening the skin even further. The last time he remembered her crying like this was nearly six years ago, the first time she had lost one of her friends during a surgery she participated in. She had probably really needed it.

"D-don't worry about explaining, you don't have to. I'm not really mad at you, I'm just kind of mad at everything... I didn't really mean to just blurt it out like that." She squeaked and glared at him in surprise when he picked her up without bothering to ask her permission and dropped her with a soft 'poof' onto the bed where the large down comforter had piled together at the end.

"What the hell was that for?! I still have to get dressed!" He stopped her when she tried to get up, only furthering her transformation from distraught to frustrated. The mood didn't exactly suit Kakashi's purposes, but he found it adorable nonetheless, something he'd probably never directly tell her lest he be the target of it more often.

"You haven't slept in two nights and it's showing. You're not getting dressed, you're getting some sleep." She dropped her frustration as fast as she had taken to switching to and from every other mood lately, now favoring gaping at him with a half-open mouth over everything else.

"You're kidding me, right?" He shook his head to clarify that no, he was not kidding and she shook her head before resting it on her hands.

"You do realize that we're on a mission and that I have a job to do, right? I can't just take a nap because I feel like it, I can sleep later." He stopped her once again when she tried to get up, this time slightly incensed that she wasn't listening to him.

"If I'm to believe you, it's my kid you're carrying and I don't want anything to happen to either of you because you refuse to take care of yourself. You're the second best medic in Konoha, so start acting like it." She sat back in surprise before looking away from him and crossing her arms over her chest, pouting in the general direction of the bedsheets.

"I'm not going to hold you responsible, Kakashi, and I'm not expecting anything from you either. You don't have to acknowledge that you're its father." She was offering him an out, and if it were anyone else, he'd strongly consider it, but not her. He couldn't just turn his back on her.

"Is this your way of telling me you don't want me to acknowledge it?" Her mouth drew out into a thin line and her eyes closed, a sign of mixed distress and irritation. Kakashi took a seat facing her, near enough that he could stop her from leaving but not close enough to risk making her any more uncomfortable. They might be there for a while.

"That's not what I said, Kakashi. It's just that it's a... a surprise, the result of a one night stand and I don't expect you to take part if you don't want to." His eyebrows narrowed slightly at her odd choice of words, even further at her odd assessment of the circumstances. Suffice to say, her grim expectations of him weren't thrilling, not that she had any real reason to expect more, but he couldn't help but feel that a little faith on her part might be nice.

"Sakura, I think you're working under a couple of very wrong assumptions, the first of which being that I don't care about this. Whatever you think of me, I'm not sure if that's really fair." She finally directed her gaze back at him, looking disheartened and at the same time slightly distrustful while she appraised him. Truthfully, her scrutiny made him a little uncomfortable and didn't sit well with him, for some reason.

"I wasn't under any assumptions, least of all that one. Whatever you choose to do, I'm just going to tell you to be consistent about it, that's all. What was the other assumption you seem to think I've been victimized by, so I can disprove that one too?" It was now or never. They were there in relative calm, having a serious, if not exactly comfortable conversation... he had to say something.

"I think you're assuming that it was a drunken one time hookup that didn't mean anything to either of us." Her eyes darkened and her gaze faltered, flickering down to the bedspread before she forced it back up, slightly glassy-eyed.

"Wasn't it?" Even her voice faltered, once again straining against tears.

"It wasn't supposed to be. That wasn't what I wanted." Something akin to surprise glittered momentarily through the liquid pooling on her lower lashes, but her voice evened out slightly and quieted almost to the point where he couldn't hear her.

"Then what did you want?" One hand found its way to his neck and pulled on the cheap metal chain there, breaking it and loosing the engraved silver band that it held into his other palm. She had asked him once why he wore his ring on a chain around his neck instead of where he was supposed to on missions like these, and he had told her that it was one of his rules. It was to remind both him and the kunoichi he was paired with that their relationship was strictly professional. It was also a rule that he had pretty much broken three days into the mission with Sakura. Taking one of her hands he dropped the circle of metal onto her upturned palm, provoking a slightly surprised and confused glance to be directed at him and his one word answer.

"Everything."

_Everything_. It was only one word, but it made enough of a connection between his recent behavior and the ring she was holding for Sakura to soften her posture and slump slightly as she let her hair fall forward to shadow her face. He started to grow apprehensive when she didn't say anything for several minutes, but his movement to get her attention was halted by her own slow yet unfaltering movements.

With one hand she reached out and took his left hand before slipping the ring she held in her other hand onto his finger. Without lifting her head, she reached behind it and lifted her own chain over it, undoing at and slipping the smaller silver band onto her own finger before visibly wiping her cheeks and raising her head to look at him.

"You know, it's kind of funny, I spent the last two weeks trying to figure out my feelings for you and I spent all of last night trying to figure out why the hell I spent an hour and a half arguing with Tsunade about how there was no possible way that I was already six weeks along. You're a nuisance, Kakashi." He wasn't really listening too much though, instead caught in the euphoria associated with the woman sitting on the other side of the bed facing him and refraining from tackling her over sideways onto the mattress, mostly for fear of hurting her and her baby. Their baby.

Instead he scooped her up and cradled her against his chest, an action that she simply submitted to without resistance, once again crying, though this time on his shoulder with her arms around him.

"You're... a nuisance... Kakashi..." He smiled softly, only holding her more closely while she continued to cry, hiccups breaking through her accusation.

"Yeah, but you knew that before you married me, Sakura." A short, broken giggle erupted from her newly found smile as she pulled away from his shoulder, the first smile of its kind that he could recall seeing in a long time.

"Is that why you came with me on this mission? To get me to marry you?" Brushing the hair away from her face, his gaze lingered distastefully on her scars for a moment before deciding that he'd already paid Sasuke back without even trying. Three years of marriage and he had never been able to convince Sakura that she was ready for children and yet the one and only time she succumbs to infidelity she refuses to give up the child that resulted. She was having his child, not Sasuke's. His child. The thought was still hard to believe.

"No, that's not why. I came to keep an eye on you, to make sure that you weren't going to run from Konoha to keep the kid away from Sasuke, and to stay close to you. I didn't even know that the mission involved marriage when Tsunade requested the recruitment list from me, it just happened to be a perk." She laughed softly again, though this time her exhaustion was showing through and her voice started becoming very quiet. She was beginning to fall asleep.

"Kakashi, he accused me of cheating on him with everyone from you to Naruto and Sai. As long as it didn't look like him I could just say I didn't know who the father was and leave it at that. He's already got his heir, he wouldn't ever get a hand on my baby. Ever." He couldn't help but smile again when she curled her hands protectively around her stomach, noticing for the first time that she was no longer completely flat, she was actually showing slightly. Trying to think back to the last pregnancy he had actually had any experience dealing with, Anko's, he wondered if she should be showing just yet, but with how much weight she had been losing, he just didn't know.

"Sakura, get some sleep. We're supposed to be acting like civilians anyway, so don't push yourself beyond what you need to." It hadn't needed to be said and she didn't answer him, already being fast asleep in his arms.

Gently, he laid her down so that she could sleep comfortably, pausing as he brought up the blankets to cover her so that his hand lingered over the shallow bump of her abdomen. He knew that somewhere along the way, they had skipped a step, maybe even a few steps, he just couldn't find anything wrong with that anymore. As corny as it sounded for him to actually say it, he loved her very much and he didn't regret a single thing that had ever transpired between them, not even that he had gotten her pregnant. As odd as it might sound... he was a bit excited about the way things had turned.

Covering her warmly, he got off the bed and went about getting ready to check out the house. He would have loved to stay, to be there when she woke up, but he thought her provocative nightwear might make it a little too difficult to resist her and he had no idea if it would be safe for her or the baby if he gave in to his baser impulses. Besides, he had a job to do and he wanted to get it done as fast as possible so that he could get Sakura back into the capable hands of the hokage. If he had known two weeks ago what he knew now, he never would have let Sakura take the mission. He would have given Tsunade the list, his recommendations for the best shinobi to be assigned to the mission and like as not Gai and Anko or another qualified couple would have been picked by Tsunade.

Now, there wasn't too much he could do about it except do his best to make sure that Sakura kept in mind that she was pregnant and remembered to keep her own health in mind. No letting her overexert herself or run herself straight into the ground like she had a proclivity for doing. Maybe have Pakkun keep an eye on her when he couldn't. She'd say that he was being ridiculous, but she knew better than to try and argue with him. It tended to be excessively easy to get his way with her, unless he was looking for a medic to grant him an early release from the hospital... She took her work too seriously. She'd even forcibly tied him to his bed once when he refused to cooperate, something he had enjoyed far more than he rightfully should have.

He'd thought he was going out of his mind when he first realized that he was attracted to his admittedly gorgeous ex-student, but he didn't realize that she was the best thing to ever happen to him until Sasuke came back to become the worst thing to ever happen to her. Now, the ring she had placed on his finger was all the proof he needed that he was being given his second chance.


	10. Surreality

**GR's Note: **_ First thing I really have to say: Thank you to everyone who reviews this, I love hearing what everyone of you has to say! Special kudos goes out to my regulars sayachimaera, JiraiyasGirl, roxnroll, HikaruThePokeTheif, inu-rulz, SMOKe13, shkh4ever and Rohain Tahquil, I so hope you and guys and a whole lot more people keep gaining and keeping interest in this story! You guys have no idea how much it means to me! Thanks go to my new beta-ers, JiraiyasGirl and sayachimaera! _

**Prompt**: Tactless

**Time to Finish**: 6 hours (3 ¾ hours actual writing, 2 ½ hours of downtime when I got interrupted)

**Listened to**: Linkin Park – Minutes to Midnight for the first hour or so, then Three Days Grace – One X after my loooong break.

**Part 10: Surreality**

Despite her profession and the unusual hours she was used to working, Sakura found difficulty waking up. With the process taking longer than it should have, she blamed the tense and emotionally draining morning that came after a long period of sleeplessness. Not that she could say the morning went badly; in actuality, it ended a whole lot better than she could have hoped for. Even though she hadn't asked what she had been meaning to, it didn't matter. She got her answers all the same.

Without the headband or mask, not only could she see that he was surprisingly easy on the eyes but, also, that he was a completely open book. With nothing to hide behind, the myriad of emotions he felt were right out in the open for her, clearer than the day outside. She'd witnessed exactly how he felt and she couldn't deny him, forget that she had no real will to in the first place. She did want to know how long he had felt that way, only because it was fairly obvious it wasn't something recent or spontaneous. He guarded his emotions too carefully for that. He... was someone she still trusted, despite not bringing something so important to her attention a little sooner. She was having his kid, Kakashi's kid. Apparently, her body was a lot quicker than her mind because she'd slept with him long before she ever suspected either of them might care about the other enough to do so. She couldn't help but wonder how something so strange had happened; even going so far as to wish she could remember something about it... anything.

Finally mustering the will to move from under the warm pile of blankets she was cocooned in, Sakura tried to stretch until she realized the movement was being impeded by something small, warm and furry. Slightly lifting the blankets, she peered at the fuzzy brown pug curled up against her stomach and laying directly on her arm. Even without his headband and clothes, she was sure she would recognize him anywhere.

"Pakkun?"

Sure enough, the brown ball of fur shifted and up emerged the dog's little black nose and droopy dark brown eyes. He stared sleepily at her for a moment before pawing the edge of the blanket out of her hand so that it fell to cover him again.

"Go back to sleep." She felt him shift and curl back up, in an attempt to return to his beauty sleep she had just interrupted.

"What are you even doing here? Surely you wouldn't give up your precious couch to come snuggle up with me." Her jest at the dog's unwillingness to share his precious sleeping space when she stayed at Kakashi's provoked a disgruntled grunt from beneath the blankets.

"Kakashi told me to stick around and it's too cold in this room to sleep anywhere else." She raised an eyebrow at the covers before lifting them again, just a little bit this time. Even that was enough to earn her an irritated grumble from the sleepy mutt.

"That doesn't tell me what you're doing here. There's no tracking to be done on this job, it's strictly surveillance." She squirmed and giggled slightly when he nodded, the motion tickling her stomach.

"I know, he told me to keep a eye on you and his pups." She smiled slightly at the direct evidence of Kakashi's protectiveness before she realized that something the dog had said just didn't sit right.

"Pups? We're not dogs, Pakkun, we don't have litters." A low growl that sounded like the canine equivalent of a chuckle erupted from the small dog, instantly making her feel ill at ease.

"You are." She froze, staring straight through the dog nuzzling into her stomach.

"What?" She recoiled slightly as his cold, wet nose soaked through her chemise and he peered up at her closely, clearly scrutinizing her.

"They have their own chakra signatures now. Weak... but they're still small, they'll get stronger." She opened her mouth in an effort to say something, but her throat had gone strangely dry and she had difficulty.

"So... what? You're saying we're having... twins?" She articulated her sentence slowly, as if only able to absorb it bit by bit, while once again he chuckled.

"Keep going..." Her eyes widened and she froze completely, something Pakkun apparently found hilarious.

"I told you, you're having a litter. It'll be fun to pay back Kakashi for making fun of me for mine." She wasn't listening. She couldn't speak and she couldn't even make herself think coherently while the dog lounged against her in smug silence. The pug didn't seem to like it very much when she threw off the blankets and deserted both him and the bed as if the mattress burned her, growling as he burrowed under them again without so much as glancing at her. He was used to her being emotional and, at times, unstable. So he didn't think anything of her behavior nor did he notice that she was genuinely panicking.

Pacing the length of the room, she tried to coalesce her thoughts into something marginally understandable, paying no notice to the fact that her increasing agitation was physically spiraling out of control.

Four weeks ago, she hadn't even known she was pregnant and like she had been doing for years, would have thought that she wasn't really ready for the responsibility of having children yet. She still didn't think she was really ready, not even for one... but three?! She couldn't do it. There was no way. And Kakashi... what if he changed his mind? He'd been really good about finding out about the first one, but how was he going to react to three? Or maybe more, she hadn't actually asked Pakkun if it was triplets and he hadn't been very forthcoming about the actual number. Oh no, one was bad. Three was worse and more... this was turning out to be an epic nightmare. Unfortunately she knew that this was one nightmare she was just not going to wake up from, no matter how surreal the entire thing seemed to her.

Pakkun wasn't paying a shred of attention to her internalized fit until he heard her hit the floor, bolting awake to the vibrations sent up through the bed frame from the floor. Braving the, in his opinion, unnaturally cold air in the room and abandoning the warmth of the blankets, he hopped down from the bed to check her and make sure she was alright. Kakashi would skin him alive if his mate or pups were in trouble.

A quick assessment confirmed the obvious. She had overreacted and fainted, that was all. She'd be fine. She hadn't hurt herself much, if at all, and he could still sense the pups. No harm, no foul.

Well, it would have been, if he had enough luck that Kakashi wouldn't come out of the shower just yet. Unfortunately, he didn't have that kind of luck, and it meant that he was probably going to be sleeping outside for the rest of the time he was stuck here. No treats either, most likely.

"Pakkun, don't crash around like a puppy, you're going to... What happened?" The pug turned tail and retreated to the woman's feet, ensuring that Kakashi couldn't touch him before tending to her and letting him explain, in his own fashion.

"She panicked and fainted. She's fine, though when did she eat last? That might have contributed..." The now dishwater blond copy-nin glared him into near silence. The pug shrank back accordingly, giving him a wide berth as he picked Sakura up and placed her back up on the bed, pulling the covers up as a barrier to the cool air in the room.

"Why was she panicking?" Pakkun hopped back up onto the bed himself, burrowing into a pocket of blankets while still managing to give the two some space. Silently he wondered how Kakashi wasn't cold without a shirt on and while still damp, while he in a full fur coat was freezing.

"I just told her the same thing I told you this morning, that's all." Kakashi's eyes darkened behind pale blue contacts, and Pakkun burrowed further into the blankets.

"Did you tell her the same way you told me?" The pug could no longer see his master's overly piercing gaze from where he had buried himself in the comforter, but the venomous tone of Kakashi's voice didn't escape his keen ears.

"Pretty much." The warmth he was nestled in was effecting him greatly, and Pakkun could feel himself fighting sleep to utter just a short answer.

"Ever hear of a thing called subtlety?" Pakkun snickered to himself while his eyelids started drooping shut.

"You tried that, and it took six years for her to mate with you. Subtlety doesn't work with this one, Kakashi." Shoving aside the newly comfortable pug, Kakashi took a seat up against the headboard. He didn't want her to panic again when she came to, so he wasn't about to leave the two alone again, not until they got a few things straightened out. He would have sent the tactless mutt to sleep outside, but the driving rain that had forced Kakashi back into the house prematurely still had yet to stop or even slow. He wasn't cruel enough to send Pakkun to sleep in the chilly downpour. An idea struck Kakashi and he poked the sleepy lump buried in the blankets with his bare toes.

"Did you tell her that I already knew, or did you just let her panic on her own thinking that she would have to be the one to break it to me?" He didn't really need to hear the answer to know it, which was a good thing, because the only response he got was guilty silence. Sighing, he slid down to lay down with an arm around Sakura, marveling over how this whole thing could have been avoided if Pakkun would have just shut his big mouth and let him handle things.

It had freaked him out at first when Pakkun just went and started laughing at him after he had been summoned, even more so when he had found out why... But he had had several hours to absorb and get used to the news while he was out memorizing the grounds and surrounding village. He couldn't say he was honestly bothered by it, but that didn't stop him from being nervous.

"Mmm...m..." he didn't have to wait long before she began regaining consciousness and started squirming slightly under his arm. Brushing back the hair from her face, he waited until she opened her eyes and registered him beside her before saying anything.

"Felling a little better now? Pakkun said you panicked when he told you." Rather than relaxing, like he'd hoped, she stiffened up and didn't turn to face him.

"You already knew? You... don't sound surprised. Or upset." Raising an eyebrow, he rolled her gently to see her face, only to be met with an expression of pure nerves, mimicking the anxiety he was doing his best to keep to himself.

"I was told several hours ago, so I've had time to accept it, that's all." She curled up a bit, staring at him like he'd grown an extra head and started spouting gibberish in place of his normal Japanese.

"So, this doesn't bother you in the slightest?! How the hell are you so damn calm?!" She wasn't raising her voice, but it was fairly obvious that she was getting agitated again as she sat up to stare questioningly down at him. Rubbing her shoulder gently, he followed her example and sat up, keeping his voice low and calm to help placate her.

"Because I'm considering myself lucky, that's why." She froze, eyes wide in surprise while the rest of her face was still stuck on uncertainty. After a moment, she shook her head and raised her hand to his forehead.

"Have you lost your marbles?!" She had taken her hand away as fast as she had placed it there, apparently satisfied that he wasn't sick...just certifiably insane. He couldn't help but frown a little, even though he knew that this was probably a whole lot harder for her than it was for him.

"Sakura, I'm perfectly fine and as sane as I have ever been," The look she gave him said clearly that his diagnosis of his own sanity was not very believable, but he continued anyway. " But I know that dogs are a lot more sensitive to chakra than humans, so if Pakkun hadn't have said anything it might have been weeks or even months before we knew. Isn't this better than the alternative?" She only frowned, no doubt still questioning his logic.

"Not really. It's like knowing about the end of the world when you're not supposed to. Pointless except to give you more time to dread the inevitable." Her narrowed his eyes at her uncharacteristically grim point while she dropped her gaze to the bed, looking defeated.

"Sakura, is it really such a bad thing?" She crossed her arms over her chest. Paired with her hunched posture it looked more like she was hugging herself protectively, a defensive gesture in response to his question. Reaching out, he took her hand in his and softly rubbed her palm with the pad of his thumb until she squeezed his hand with uncertainty.

"I don't know... I guess not. It's just... a whole lot to try and deal with all at once. Honestly, I really don't get how you're so calm about all this." He pulled her gently towards him and met with no resistance whatsoever on her part, situating her comfortably on his legs with her head on his shoulder. He rubbed her side gently, having noticed a long time ago that while she's never openly seek out affectionate contact of any sort, she had a bit of a complex about it in that craved it. So, it came as no real surprise when she did relax a bit, curling into him like a cat.

"I can stay calm because... I love you, I want to be with you and that won't change, Sakura. One child or three." There, he had said it. And, for once it didn't sound completely stupid to him. If he was expecting some sort of dramatic emotional moment from her though, he'd have been disappointed. Instead she stiffened, pulling away from him and sliding off of his lap to turn and look at him. Her clearly unsure expression did little to assure him and for a moment he thought he'd said too much, that she was rethinking their unspoken promise from that morning.

"Kakashi..." She covered his mouth when he opened it to interrupt her, to stop her from saying something he really couldn't stand to hear, her own expression pained, as if what she was trying to articulate was difficult for her."I... I thought I loved Sasuke for so long that I can't honestly trust myself with that word anymore. I can't associate it with you either, because... it just...it doesn't even come close." She shifted a little but didn't move her hand, apparently not done with her shaky confession. Brushing her hair behind her ear with her free hand, her eyes dropped to the bedsheets before she forced them back up again, a warm pink blush rising to tint her cheeks.

"I really, really care about you... 'more than anyone else' would be putting it very lightly... but that doesn't change the fact that I was avoiding having children for a reason, Kakashi. I mean, one is more than hard enough to accept, but three? I... don't know if I'm ready for this..." She was trembling, her resolve to keep her gaze away from the bedsheets lost right around the same time she seemed to lose the ability to keep her hand where it had been.

While Kakashi couldn't say he liked seeing her like this, he could say that he was immensely relieved. She hadn't been so hesitant to say the three words that had led to this entire situation before, but her scars were proof enough that something had happened, something big enough to make her afraid of them. Hopefully, she'd be ready to talk about it sometime soon, but he wouldn't press it unless it became an issue, no matter how badly he wanted to know.

Without saying anything yet, Kakashi returned her to his arms without finding much resistance and pushed her hair away from her face to reveal wet tear tracks on her cheeks. She wiped them away herself, still not able to bring herself to look at him and he kissed her forehead softly, startling her.

"I'd be more worried if you did feel ready, Sakura, because that would mean that you weren't thinking enough about it. You have to remember that I'm not letting you do this alone, and stressing yourself out over something that you have no control over and can't change isn't good for you, or the babies." She nodded softly and shakily before burying her face in his neck and wrapping her arms around him tightly. He hugged her back, gently rubbing her back through her chemise as he situated her more comfortably against him. He barely heard her when she spoke again and at first thought he actually imagined it.

"Thank you."

He turned his head to brush a kiss onto her cheek, running his fingers through her hair simply to enjoy the silken texture on his fingertips. Smiling, he thought that the best way to calm her down completely would be to focus her onto the positive side of the situation.

"Think Tsunade will like her almost-grandkids enough to forget about killing me for taking away her best medic?" He smiled again when he heard and felt the short, happy giggles that shook her shoulders instead of anxiety and tears..

"From the way she sounded during my check-up, I think she'll be ready to give you a medal for making sure they aren't Sasuke's. I wouldn't blame her either... I mean, I can't imagine that he would've made a much better father than he did a husband... so, thank you."

Gently, he reached up to cup her cheek, brushing his lips along her jaw until she turned to meet the kiss, marking their first mutually desired one in almost two months since they had all been quick, one-sided pecks during the mission. Kakashi had been too worried about pushing her to take it any farther than that, though he was glad that he wasn't keeping anything from her anymore.

The kiss quickly deepened, though he wasn't the one who started to take it further. Her boldness and willingness surprised him more than a little, especially when he compared it to her shyness and timidity from the first time, but the sense that she wanted him, only him, was incredibly captivating.

Slowly, reluctantly, he broke the kiss when they both needed air and caught the content smile on her face before she slid off of both his lap and the bed. Immediately he missed her warmth, but he was glad to see her smiling again. He hoped that it would be something he'd see a lot more of now, as much as before Sasuke returned to the village, when she had been a naturally happy girl.

He watched as she picked out an outfit to wear for the rest of the day and saw that the dress she picked was a bright yellow-orange hue, though he couldn't tell much more than that. He smiled brightly as he mused that the fiery color she'd picked was a pretty apt imitation of the confidence and attitude he wanted to see come back for her and replace the shy, scared girl she had become.

He was going to bring her back and he honestly couldn't be happier... Unless you chose to count the fact that she was having his children, because that made him even happier. Triplets... once she got used to the idea, she wouldn't be so scared of it, and her naturally nurturing personality would take over. He knew she'd be a perfect mother, just like she was perfect at everything else she set her mind to. She just needed to give herself the chance.


	11. Enmity

**GR's Note: **_ First off: Thank you to my beta-ers, you guys are geniuses! Thank you to everyone who reads this, both on a regular and not so regular basis, your support is very much appreciated and I LOVE reading about what you guys think every time I post a new part! Your reviews are addicting, so thank you so much! Enjoy Part 11: Enmity!_

**Prompt**: Guilt

**Time to Finish**: 3 ¾ hours

**Listened to**: CSI / CSI:NY reruns, nothing pertinent to the story. My MP3 player's lost at the moment.

**Part 11: Enmity**

"Alright, I've heard enough about this from you two. I need to speak with Sasuke alone, now."

Standing across the desk from Tsunade stood two beat up shinobi, one blond and one black-haired, along with a blond kunoichi carrying an incredibly adorable infant girl in a pink cat-eared sleeper, neither of which had a scratch on them. "You're both dismissed. Yes, even you Naruto, there are some personal matters I need to deal with with him. Shoo."

Nodding in mute understanding, the blond kunoichi quickly silenced her companion's protests and dragged him out of the office with her and their baby, leaving Tsunade alone with the raven-haired jounin in surprised silence.

They were entirely alone, to Tsunade's twisted delight, and she had some things she could finally bring to his attention. He had caused so many problems since his defection that the older woman was sorely tempted to do a few things to him that only she, as the hokage, would ever get away with. Fortunately for him, she did have something resembling self-control, even if it was because Shizune now had help hiding her sake and, consequently, had kept Tsunade sober now for almost a full six months. Pretty much since Chihiro had started walking and learned how to keep 'Baa-chan' distracted away from discovering all of her mother's myriad hiding places, actually. She was going absolutely crazy because of it, but she no longer had a problem with her temper when it counted.

"Alright, Sasuke, you know how this works. When you came back, I gave you thirty seconds to fast-talk your way out from the needle, and that seemed to work pretty well, so why break such a successful tradition? I'll be generous tonight though, just because I can be. You have forty seconds to avoid the death penalty." She didn't even bother batting an eyelash in the face of his obvious outrage when his fists slammed down on her desk, tossing piles of paperwork that she didn't actually have any plans of finishing onto the floor.

"For beating the hell out of your precious successor and his lying bitch of a girlfriend?! Are you out of your damned mind?!"

Tsunade knew he had a bit of a temper, something she was ashamed to say she hadn't found out about until Sakura's checkup before her mission. She had never seen it firsthand, until now. Standing up from her seat, she employed her favorite expression on him, a glare which never failed to scare any man into silence. Sasuke appeared to be no exception, though he did manage to hide it better than most.

"Actually, you're looking at multiple counts of rape and domestic abuse, for starters. Though, I could probably squeeze assault in there somewhere, if you wish. Won't change your sentence but, y'know, whatever floats your boat, I guess."

And with that, she was once again on the receiving end of his red-eyed glare, not that it mattered much to her. He'd spent three years getting away with the torture and rape of a woman she considered to be a sort of adoptive daughter before she'd heard so much as a whisper about it . It had taken her and two of her most trusted ANBU officers two full weeks to build a viable case against him. There were no words to describe her anger and disgust, not even close.

"That's bullshit. Rape? Abuse? I don't fucking think so. I'm out of here." He went to turn his back on her, to saunter out of the office like he'd done nothing wrong, but a simple hand gesture from the hokage drew out from the shadows her two most loyal ANBU, one with sleek black hair and one with shaggy brown hair. Both of them were Sakura's friends as well, and that alone was enough of a reason for their ninjato to be drawn across Sasuke's throat as he reached the door, without Tsunade even issuing the order.

"I'm warning you right now, you aren't going to leave this office alive unless you cooperate. Give me a damn good explanation for the way you treated Sakura... Otherwise, you're fighting your way out, unarmed and already injured against three people who've already got your number. Choose wisely." One gesture and that number could easily become five or even seven, depending how much attention this particular meeting had gotten from Sakura's friends and sympathizers, but he didn't need to know that. Already, the threat of violence had dropped the cocky Uchiha a peg.

"I never raped my ex-wife and I never abused her, either. Everything we did was consensual and any injury I inflicted upon her was likely a result of training. You don't have a thing on me." His smug smirk was smooth as cream, while Tsunade swallowed her anger at being so blatantly lied to. Even her two little helpers tightened their grips on their weapons as they turned Sasuke and guided him back to his spot in front of her desk.

"Eleven... bite marks... scars, all over her neck, shoulders and chest. Amazingly enough, they all match the dental impressions we have on file for you here in the hospital." Tsunade opened a folder she had been keeping handy on her desk, extracting five large photographs and fanning them out in front of the three men in her office. Two visibly cringed when they looked at the evidence in full color before their grips simultaneously tightened on their weapons again and their gazes turned to the only one in the room who had absolutely no reaction to the gut-wrenching pictures.

"What can I say? She liked it rough, and she liked being bitten as much as I liked biting her. Too bad sadism is a compulsion, not a crime."

She wanted to hit him. She wanted so badly just to launch herself across the desk and punch the self-satisfied smirk off of his face, and it wasn't difficult for her to see that behind their masks, Tenzou and Sai felt exactly the same. Unfortunately, they all had their composure to maintain for the sake of their jobs and their own sanity.

"Rough sex is one thing, Sasuke, but it crosses the line when my apprentice, the second best medic in the village if not the best, cannot heal herself enough to prevent this level of scarring. That is not a result of sex, that is the result of torture, which is a crime." She took out more photographs from the folder, these ones detailing the numerous scars that were all straight lines and extended in between Sakura's collarbones and thighs as well as over her back, biting back the wave of nausea that followed looking at them. She fanned out only the images that showed areas Sakura might show in a bathing suit, to preserve most of the girl's modesty among her friends and former teammates. Seething inwardly, she noted both their reactions as well as Sasuke's lack of one while she put the leftover pictures back in the thick folder.

"I have a recorded statement from Sakura stating that you caused all these scars, as well as several I can't show here, for a total of over forty scars. She also states that you did it all the evening of March 28th, and that you were the cause for many other injuries that have been detailed in her medical records but she wouldn't give an explanation for before... Bruises, broken wrists, ribs, ankles, fingers... the scar on her face... about ninety percent of the injuries she's received since you forced her to cease field duty, in fact. I've actually got confirmation from another source that at least the scar on her face is from you, as well as at least a handful of the small breaks, things she had difficulty hiding before she could get them healed. Explain that away, Sasuke." His eyes narrowed even farther at her while she cocked an eyebrow in challenge.

She had pretty much forced that confession out of Sakura, and the girl had been in tears the entire time. That was even before their argument about her conception and due dates. That day had been a nightmare, plain and simple, and Sakura's insistent denial of any possibility that she could be wrong had actually caused Tsunade to question her own diagnosis, at least until the next day when Naruto had come forth with some information and a confession of his own.

She had been glad that Sasuke would turn out not to be the father of Sakura's child, but at the same time she had mixed feelings about the actual father. The man was a genius and the kid would likely be a brilliant shinobi, but... Kakashi didn't exactly strike her as the paternal type, or the commitment type either. That, and she was still a bit miffed at him for hiding what he knew about Sasuke's behavior until she had pressed him about it, especially since he didn't do anything about it either... though that was probably Sakura's fault. The girl was so blindly devoted to Sasuke, she'd never have forgiven Kakashi for hurting him.

"She's a chronic liar, and Kakashi would say anything she wanted him to if it would keep him in her pants." Tsunade twitched in pain as her grip on the edge of her desk tightened to the point where she felt the nails ripping away from the underlying skin and Tenzou looked like he was shaking in anger. The only liar here was Sasuke, and there was no getting through to him. Cooperation was apparently something he wasn't willing to give.

"My apprentice is not a liar. She isn't a cheat, she isn't a masochist and, thankfully, she's no longer your wife. As for Kakashi, his integrity is incredibly valued in this village, far more than yours is. You're headed for a needle in your arm, Sasuke, and I am going to be damned glad to be the one to administer it. Boys, take him to a holding cell before I smash that pretty little face in and make sure to get some sleep tonight. I expect you'll want to be there for his execution, bright and early tomorrow morning. Now get him out of my sight."

Three quick handseals and she had performed a silencing jutsu, leaving Sasuke to struggle against his escorts in outraged silence. Sinking down into her chair, she watched the door shut behind the three men before turning her eyes to the photos still fanned out over her desk and succumbing to her own guilt.

Three years... three long years, this had been going on right under everyone's nose and Sakura never said a word about it. They had all seen her increasingly fake smiles, but until Tsunade made her undress for a full-blown and extremely overdue physical before she left, she'd only thought that Sakura was unhappy with the obvious lack of affection she was receiving from her husband... She'd never in a million years have thought anyone would be stupid enough to try and hurt Sakura, or that Sakura wouldn't fight back if given half a chance.

Hadn't she taught her well enough? Was this her fault, had she not done the task she'd accepted when she took Sakura on as her pupil? Hadn't she given Sakura the knowledge and strength she needed to face the world on her own?

If she had done what she was supposed to, Sakura should have been able to fend for herself... but obviously she hadn't, and so Sakura couldn't. She'd failed... as her mentor, as her hokage and as her friend.

She couldn't take it. She needed to get away, even just for a bit.

Scooping up the contents of Sakura's medical file, she set things in order again and placed it on top of the pile on her desk. The elders would be on her ass about her decision as soon as they found out about it, and as much as she didn't want to be reminded of the contents of the folder, she needed to keep her evidence on hand.

"Shizune! Cancel any appointments I have left, I'm leaving!" The brunette jumped at hearing her name, only nodding in agreement as Tsunade locked her office door and took off quickly. Maybe if she was lucky, Jiraiya would shell out for some sake for the two of them and she could drown her guilt and ineptitude tonight.

Meanwhile, two blond shinobi had taken some time after their dismissal before doubling back and were now silent in shock, having heard the majority of the conversation that had just gone on from their perch outside the window. Silently exchanging a look, they both understood the mutual need to confirm everything they had just heard. They needed to see the proof, or they couldn't believe it.

Quietly, the two snuck into the office through the window and Ino, now unoccupied after leaving her daughter in her father's care, made a beeline for Tsunade's desk and began rifling through the papers and folders scattered across it. Almost immediately she found her friend's file and flipped it open, her sharp intake of breath when she caught sight of the contents alerting Naruto to what she was doing while he was busy on the other side of the room.

"What's wrong? What did you find?" Her hands shook in disbelief as she flipped through pictures of their best friend's scars and as Naruto came up behind her to get a closer look, her fingers hit a small tape fixed to the inside cover of the folder. She swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat as she freed it, knowing that Sakura had never had any psychiatric counseling that would require her to be taped... so this had to be her statement, her confession.

"Naruto... find me Tsunade's little recorder... I think this is the statement she mentioned... I want to know what happened. H-he hurt her... how did we not catch it?! What kind of friends are we?!"

She dropped the file and photos scattered a little while she brought her hands up to cover her eyes, biting back the bitter wave of guilt that threatened to swallow her. Behind her, doing his best to exercise the restraint he knew he needed to maintain for both of their safety, Naruto brushed his fingertips over the fingertips, his eyes darkening as he pushed them aside one at a time to examine them.

Deciding immediately that he needed to know the truth too, he circled around the desk and mindlessly opened the top drawer, fishing out Tsunade's tape recorder to hand to Ino. Tsunade had already named him her successor, a position he was being conditioned for daily. As a consequence, he'd long since memorized the contents of her desk completely, right down to where she kept the master keys to the village. Naruto barely registered the short snap of the recorder being shut and turned on before he heard Sakura's voice, distorted by tears and the heavy static from the recorder.

"_...His eyes... I can't look at them anymore... It always hurts... and I can't move..."_ Apparently they weren't at the beginning of the tape, but instead of rewinding it, Ino let it play. She stuck the recorder on the desk right between them so that they could both hear while she pored over Sakura's records.

"_Did you say no?"_

Ino glared at the small machine, knowing perfectly well that Sakura wouldn't have even had the chance if Sasuke didn't want her to. She wasn't particularly surprised with Sakura's answer, though she could say she was sufficiently nauseous about it.

"_... I didn't get a chance to, he was faster than I was." _

Examining Sakura's records yielded only information that Tsunade had already given them, albeit unknowingly, and a brief glance at Naruto revealed him to look extremely shocked. Again, not particularly surprising. She knew that this was far heavier of a blow for him to handle than it was for her, because while they both knew that Sakura hadn't been happy, neither of them would have believed that Sasuke would actually hurt her... Knowing that the closest thing he had to a family had turned on itself... She could see the devastation and anger painted in the reddening hue of his eyes.

"_When was this? Why didn't you come to the hospital? Where did you go?"_

Ino stopped Naruto's hand before he could shut the recorder off, even though it was painfully obvious that he really didn't want to hear anymore. He didn't want to know anymore, he'd already found out what they broke in for... but she needed to hear it. In some strange way, hearing it almost felt like a way to cope with her own guilt.

"_...I-it...the 28th... I was supposed to go out with the girls for dinner... but he... he must have been in a really bad mood when he came home... I don't know why, either... maybe Ino didn't put out that night or something."_ Ino cringed at the biting tone that entered Sakura's voice when her name was said and silently hoped that things could be mended between them when she returned from her mission. Naruto took her hand and squeezed it, prompting her to give him a weak smile before turning back to the file.

"_So, what did you do after? You didn't come to the hospital."_

Ino could see that, simply because there was no entry in Sakura's file for the 28th, or for any of the days immediately after. In fact, it looked as though Sakura had avoided being on the other end of the stethoscope right up until the date marked on the tape, not a good sign. Unlike her... better half, Sakura was not normally shy about seeking medical attention when she needed it... and looking at the photos, Ino could see that she had needed it badly. It would have taken her days to heal all those injuries by herself, and Kakashi hadn't been in the village, so where had she gone?

"_I ...s-spent a few days sleeping on Kakashi's couch with Pakkun. I didn't... I c-couldn't..."_

Ino and Naruto exchanged a look, neither of them surprised that she'd break into the copy-nin's apartment to spend a few nights, though the admission that he had left the pug behind was a striking one. Such behavior was unusual for Kakashi, but Ino privately suspected that he had left the mutt behind specifically to keep an eye on Sakura. It would have been a first, but his protectiveness had been escalating ever-so-slightly during the last year or so.

"_Wait, let me get this straight... You broke into his apartment rather than come to see me or Shizune? What on earth would possess you to go and avoid medical treatment like that?" _

Ino closed the folder, satisfied that she wouldn't learn any more from Tsunade's hasty chicken scrawl, yet still unsure that she knew everything. One thing in particular bothered her... Why would Sasuke be so rough with Sakura? He hadn't ever come close to making marks like these on her, and he really didn't have any reason to treat the two so differently from one another... did he?

"_Wha...? N-no, I didn't break in, I swear! I... H-he gave me a key... and I didn't need any medical attention other than my own, really..."_

Ino quirked an unintended smile and immediately felt guilty about it, even though she could see Naruto doing it too. How long had Sakura had a key? Honestly, how blind could she possibly be? Ino knew for a fact that Naruto had never been given a key to the antisocial shinobi's apartment, so how could Sakura have never realized that she was being given highly preferential treatment? The girl accused Naruto of being dense, but she'd be the best example of the pot calling the kettle black.

"_Alright, alright, don't have a fit. These... are a copy of your medical records for the last few years. Now, I'm assuming that this isn't the first time he's done something like this, so I want you to mark a red star next to __every__ injury I've ever treated you for that you __know__ he's caused. Through training or otherwise, but don't mark it unless you're __sure.__"_

Ino looked up in alarm at the recorder, remembering the many red stars that she had seen in passing and thought nothing of, while she heard the scratching of a pen above the static of the tape. Raising her hand slowly to her mouth, she bit her knuckle in horror as the scratching continued, each star a distinct and separate sound that echoed in her ears.

Unable to take it, the endless scratching and the knowledge that came with it, she roughly grabbed the recorder and shut it off, pulling the tape out so she could make sure she wouldn't be able to hear it anymore. There were so many of them, the stars...

Slowly regaining the composure that she had momentarily lost, Ino stuck the tape back into Sakura's folder and set everything straight again while Sakura's voice and the damned scratching continued to echo in her ears, haunting her. There was no way that even a fraction of those injuries had been through training, because Sasuke had always considered Sakura's combative skills beneath him and never trained with her. Now, Ino couldn't help but feel guilty because of the question nagging at her incessantly; How had she and Naruto missed it? Better yet, why had Kakashi ignored it? If it was his twisted way of keeping her close to him, dependent on his friendship... Ino couldn't think of anything more cruel to do to someone you supposedly cared about. It was sick.

"Come on, let's go home... get Kirie to bed. I have an idea that might make you feel better, okay?" For once when suggesting something to 'make her feel better', there was absolutely nothing suggestive about his tone, and so with one last look at Tsunade's desk, she followed him out the open window into the darkening twilight. He was probably right to be so calm... because Tsunade was dealing with Sasuke the way she should be, and with Sakura and Kakashi out of the village, there wasn't a whole lot to do to rectify that situation right now. For now... she'd concentrate on her own life for the moment, starting with listening to Naruto's latest idea.

"Naruto... do you think that we might be missing something? Y'know, like all the pieces don't quite fit?" She was still forbidden from overly strenuous activity, until Tsunade deemed her fit for it, So playing it safe, Naruto let her piggyback on him while they traversed the rooftops to their apartment. He was quiet until they got there, but not in the way he had been taught to be... he was unnaturally and totally silent. In truth, it scared Ino a little, especially when he did manage to say something and his voice came out as barely more than a whisper.

"Ino... You would have said something if he had hurt you in any way, right? You would have told me, wouldn't you?" She balked a little, tightening her hold on him in an effort to reassure him a little bit.

"Of course I would have, you know that. I don't keep secrets from you, Naruto... and besides that, I couldn't have if I wanted to. You saw me every day, and I don't have Sakura's skills at healing. I wouldn't have been able to keep it from you. But... like I said, I think we're missing something. He never did anything that bad to me, so why would he have done it to her? It just doesn't make sense!" In front of their building he set her down, but she could see that his eyes were dark with thought. Casting a glance up the building wall, she could see the light in the apartment on and the silhouette of her father sitting in the chair by the window and rocking his granddaughter. Even looking in from outside, the sight was just too adorable for words.

"Ino, you heard the way he called Sakura a liar earlier... and what he said about Kakashi... He probably thought she was going behind his back the entire time... not that I support that as a reason." His eyes were dark and starting to redden again as he spoke, staring right through her into space. Drawing back the intonation of Sasuke's voice from earlier, a particularly bitter and biting sound, she froze in horror.

"What do you mean? He... he didn't really... think that, did he? I mean, nobody really believed those rumors, they were just... us poking fun at them... y'know, because they spent so much time together! N-nobody would ever believe that Sakura would ever actually cheat, that's ridiculous!" His eyes focused and he actually looked at her, his eyes back to their normal hue as he reached an arm around her shoulders and squeezed gently.

"It may have just been us poking fun, but apparently he believed it... even if everyone else knew better. Well... thought they did, anyway. C'mon, let's go inside, get her to bed. I'll go find Baa-chan later and make sure she doesn't get too wasted... Wouldn't want all of Shizune and Chihiro's hard work to go down the drain." There would be no getting anything else out of him, not even for her, unless he felt like talking... something that wouldn't happen until he was done thinking.

It wasn't often that he got like this, but usually it didn't take long to pass, so Ino knew that she was best off just trying to wait it out. Whether whatever he came up with was a good thing or not, she wouldn't know until he told her about it... but once he did, she'd be right there to help him iron out any wrinkles in the plan. It was what she was good at, after all, and two heads are better than one.

Ino chuckled silently as a thought crossed her mind: Whoever had keyed the phrase 'dumb blond' had certainly never been to this village, that was for sure.


	12. Rationality

**GR's Note: **_Once again, thank you so much to my beta-ers, you are angels! I totally mean it, you guys are saints to help me with my messed-up writing. ^_^ To everyone who reads and reviews, thank you all as well, you inspire me to keep it up! Enjoy!_

**Prompt: **Duty

**Time to Finish: **3 ¾ hours

**Listened to: **Faber Drive – Seven Second Surgery

**Part 12: Rationality**

It was so easy for Kakashi to completely lose track of time on their mission. They'd been there for nearly a month before he finally got it into his head to send an update back to Konoha. Even then, it was only because Sakura had finally written out an abbreviated update on her condition for Tsunade, and both were very much overdue. Between the long awaited comfort both had with each other and the lack of anything actually happening, for the mission or otherwise, both of them had just sort of... forgotten about the updates they should have been sending.

"Kakashi, we're nowhere near the house and there's nobody around. Get this damned thing off of me!" Kakashi watched in pointed amusement while Pakkun rolled and struggled in the damp grass, trying his hardest to wriggle his way free of the collar that had been forced upon him. After having his laugh, kakashi took pity on the small dog and removed the restraint, which Sakura had insisted be colored pink since she was the one Pakkun was nearly constantly tagging along with and she had felt particularly spiteful after some choice comments the mutt had made about her. Even after every word of caution Kakashi had impressed upon the dog, Pakkun still didn't realize when it would be most prudent to keep his big mouth shut.

"Want me to remove the ribbons too?" The dog glared and growled simultaneously at Kakashi while trying to remove the pink ribbons that had been tied to his neck and tail after he had been particularly blunt to Sakura that morning. He managed to shred one and partially undo the bow on the other before Kakahsi decided that he really did need help and simply cut the knotted loops off of the poor pug, to his visible relief.

"That woman's a sadist, she has it in for me!" Kakashi chuckled, kneeling down to scratch the dog behind the ears. He knew that Pakkun's assessment was completely biased and almost totally untrue, but he could see at least a little bit where he was coming from.

Today, it had been the surprising information about how long Pakkun had known about Sakura's pregnancy that had set her off. Kakashi had taken the news far better than the hormonal woman and had been able to quell her temper just before she had decided that Pakkun would look good in a pink and white polka dot sweater, but unfortunately not before she'd tied bows in his fur. He might have felt bad for the dog, if he didn't think Pakkun deserved everything he got.

"It's your own fault, you know. You can't seem to keep your mouth shut normally, so why wouldn't you have just said something when you found out in the first place?" The dog snarled and grabbed one ribbon in his mouth and paws, intent upon shredding the accursed thing so it could never be worn again.

"And make her freak out without you there to clean her up? No thanks, I'd like to live to see my grandpups someday." Kakashi rolled his eyes, almost having expected an answer like that and so was fairly unfazed by it. Between Sakura and Pakkun, Kakashi had an odd feeling that he was going to be stuck in the middle for a very long time.

"You're impossible. Do you actually enjoy seeing her mad at you? Because you certainly act like it." The pug broke into his own creepy rendition of a snicker, irritating Kakashi. He had had some real damage control to do earlier that morning because the pug didn't have an ounce of sense about him, which had been even more difficult to do because Kakashi himself would have liked to know a bit sooner.

Apparently, Pakkun had known that Sakura was pregnant less than two weeks into it, and also knew the entire time that Kakashi was at the same time, it somehow slipped his mind to say anything about it, even when Kakashi returned from his mission and the first thing he asked about was Sakura. The pug had told him that she was pregnant, he just selectively failed to mention the most important part. Kakashi knew he shouldn't have trusted his mutt's smug smirk.

"It has its moments... She's just so easy! She's a hormonal, bi-polar, nearly obsessive-compulsive schizophrenic with insecurity issues, which makes her gold to pick on," Playfully, Kakashi swatted at the dog, who readily evaded it and continued on. "And the fact that she's got the oh-so-awesome copy-nin Kakashi trailing after her like a lost puppy and actually showing that he has a human side while he placates her demonic temper is just the dog treat on top."

This time when Kakashi swatted at the dog, he was less playful about it now that he realized that Pakkun not only did it to bait her, but him as well. He wasn't any more successful with catching the dog the second time though, which irked him slightly and caused the pug to start with his unnerving chuckling again.

"You're exaggerating, Pakkun, you make her sound like she belongs in a psyche ward." The pug nodded in agreement before Kakashi withdrew two slim scrolls from his pockets, the mission updates that the dog was going to transport back to Tsunade. Seeing them, Pakkun bolted to attention and sat up like the obedient pup he could be when he wanted too, eager to be given the scrolls that were his ticket out of this damp and drearily frigid locale.

"Well, she treats me like I'm her therapist, so maybe she does... which brings me to a little problem I've been meaning to bring up with you about her stupid insecurities..." The dog relaxed only to bound up onto Kakashi's knees and plant his muddy front paws on his chest to glare at him from eye level.

"Do me a favor while I'm gone and reassure her that she's not getting fat! I don't care if you think it's true or not, but I'm really getting tired of hearing her worry about whether you think she's still attractive or not! She's driving me insane!" The dog was quick to steal the scrolls right from Kakashi's hand and bound off before he could be asked any questions, leaving his master feeling stupefied as he sat alone in the grass of a deserted field, somewhere out of sight and earshot of the mansion.

Kakashi couldn't really think of any reason he could have given Sakura to think that he didn't find her attractive, so he simply rationalized that it was just her getting uncomfortable and self-conscious about how quickly the babies were growing. She seemed to be getting bigger at an amazing pace and showing a little more every day, so he could only imagine that she was getting uneasy about it, especially since as a kunoichi, she had never gained more than a couple pounds at a time. Personally, he found it completely fascinating, even if she didn't.

"_What did you want to show me all the way out here? We're an awfully long way from the house, won't we be missed?"_

_"What, afraid that your husband's going to catch you? Relax, I promise you'll like where I'm taking you, it's only a little farther."_

Kakashi didn't even need to look to know either of the voices, the first being his favorite; a sweet, feminine voice that he always loved hearing, while the second was the voice of their target and not nearly as welcome in Kakashi's ears. The man had been an irritation since he had shown up, taking immediate interest in Sakura as soon as he saw her. He had been fixated on her, and nothing Sakura had done had successfully redirected that fixation onto somebody else. They were never going to get the mission finished if he kept it up.

_"I don't know if I should be here... Those woods don't look very safe, and I should get back to the house... I mean, what if somebody gets hurt? I'm the only qualified nurse here‒–—eek!" _Kakashi cast a glance in the direction of Sakura's surprised yelp, even though he suspected it to be faked, only to be 'treated' by the sight of their target holding his furiously blushing wife bridal-style and looking about as trustworthy as a snake watching a nest full of broken-winged birds. Not exactly pleased and highly suspicious, Kakashi hid well out of sight but close enough to hear and follow the two just fine.

_"Relax, there's nothing in these woods that can hurt you, and you really want to see this. You'll thank me later."_

_"You're going to get me in trouble!"_

_"What he doesn't know won't hurt him."_

_"Where are you taking me, really?!"_

_"You're really impatient, you know that? Alright, you should be safe to walk from here, it's all soft and mossy. Really easy to walk on."_

_"Oh, wow! It's so pretty!"_

Wow, indeed. He had led Sakura to some sort of natural spring, completely isolated in an enclosed clearing and difficult enough to find that Kakashi might not have been able to on his own. Sakura sure looked excited as she ran around, looking into the spring and taking in the completely green, moss-covered scenery. Even the ground was a thick, spongy layer of moss under their feet.

_"You like it? The dry season's coming, so I thought you might like coming here once in a while to relax. You seem awfully... tense, and that's not good for someone in your condition."_

_"I-I'm not tense..."_

Kakashi noted her blush and avoid eye contact with their target, because it was different than her typical nervous behavior. She was faking it, acting like the timid civilian nurse she was supposed to be. She was obviously trying to bait him, and Kakashi couldn't bring himself to believe that she wouldn't have told him she was going to do this.

_"Don't get nervous, it's alright..."_

_"D-don't! I'm married, I can't..."_

_"You're married to a man who doesn't appreciate you as much as he should."_

Kakashi balked as he watched her hand being taken and kissed, then her wrist, her fingers, her fingertips. More striking than even that was her very real trepidation underlying her forced blush. She was getting in over her head, like... she hadn't expected this.

She hadn't expected him to drag her out there, but she was trying to take advantage of an already bad situation, to complete their mission. Kakashi wouldn't be doing any good by stepping in, but he knew she'd never been sent on a 'pink' mission before, as missions tended to be dubbed when they got to this point, so he needed to stay and make sure nothing happened to her. While this might be the perfect out-of-the-way place for sneaking off with another man's wife, it was also perfect for a lot of other things. Here... nobody would ever hear her scream if she got in trouble.

_"M-my husband cares about me very much!"_

_"Oh, I don't doubt that he loves you, Hana-chii... but does he still want you? ...Being cared for just isn't enough sometimes, is it?"_

Kakashi watched Sakura freeze at the poisonous words, while some very obvious and very real doubt flashed behind her amber contacts. He... didn't know exactly what he should be feeling, he just knew that Sakura hadn't ever showed any interest, and so he had assumed that it wasn't safe. Now... he had to believe that there was some other reason for it.

_"It's such a shame how some men can overlook the natural healthy beauty of a woman with child... when, in fact, most women never look more gorgeous."_

Kakashi's nails bit into the bark of the tree that was serving as his hiding place while he listened to what was happening and only occasionally seeing what was going on. He was torn between saving everyone the trouble of the mission by snapping the creep's neck like a twig and knowing that if he did, he'd be straining relations between Fire and Wind country too much for Konoha and Suna to repair. He couldn't interfere... and it was like watching Sakura walk into a wolves' den.

_"Hana-chii... You are the sweetest, purest girl I have ever met... and though we're both married... Could you possibly indulge my selfishness for wanting you, just this once?"_

Kakashi wanted to gag at the man's blatant abuse of a line of Jiraiya's literary genius, while at the same time wondering how many girls actually fell for it. Sakura wasn't buying the line, but it didn't matter; the seeds of doubt had already been sowed, and that in itself was doing more for the target's cause than any line he could say. Kakashi could see that the fight had already gone out of Sakura, the internal struggle between her own m,oral code and her duty to the village already over. The guilt was written all over her face; the mission had won out over morality, no matter how much he wished it weren't true.

_"I'm sorry, I can't―"_

_"Please, Hana-chii..."_

Kakashi wanted to break every bone in the guy's body for even daring to touch Sakura. He wanted to mangle him just for his similarities to Sasuke... But he wanted to cause himself liberal amounts of pain for ever making Sakura doubt him, even more than he wanted to use his Raikiri to wipe the sly smirk from their target's face.

_"...Just once. No names, and... no kisses, please. I care about my husband too much to betray him that much."_

Knowing what she was going to do made her confession bittersweet in Kakashi's ears, and he retreated out of range a bit, unable to watch or listen to what he knew was going on. He couldn't make himself leave outright though; He just knew better than to leave her all by herself, in case she were to get in trouble.

Later, when she walked right past his hiding place to leave the woods, mercifully alone, he saw the tears running freely down her face as she adjusted her sweater; he saw the guilt ripping her to shreds as she wiped a streak of what looked suspiciously like blood off of her neck with the cuff of her sleeve.

As much as it gnawed at him, he knew and could accept that she hadn't necessarily wanted to do it, it was just her job. She did it so that they could leave, mission completed in full. He didn't even need to forgive her, because there was nothing to forgive. He was as much at fault as she was, for not realizing earlier that the mission could very well end this way and for ever giving her reason to doubt him. She wasn't one to see things as they were, though; she would more likely let her guilt lead her because she knew it wasn't something she'd do normally.

Pakkun was right about one thing; Kakashi was always right there to clean up the mess, figuratively speaking, and to help Sakura regain or keep her sanity when she started breaking down. Now would be no different except that, this time, he had a whole lot to apologize and make up for in addition to making Sakura think rationally.

He wasn't good at articulating his feelings, and he'd be the first to admit it. He never had been one for vocalizing his emotions, only this time it was Sakura feeling the repercussions. She actually doubted that he still wanted her now that she was pregnant... He hadn't thought it needed to be said, it was on his mind so often, but now....he needed to say it. He needed to dispel the doubt brought on by his thoughtless inaction and the toxic logic whispered into her ears by a snake on the hunt for his next prey. He needed to set things straight, but first...

His wife had been made to bleed, and he was here. Wouldn't it only be fair to return the favor?


	13. Confidentiality

**GR's Note: **_Thank you everyone for your seemingly infinite patience with me, I owe all of you a whole lot for continuing to read this! For this, and the next few chapters, I've had them all written out by hand for quite a while, so I don't remember my prompts, the music I was listening to or how long each chapter took me to write, so preceding the chapter will just be my note and thanks to my readers and beta-ers._

_Lately, my life could very easily be described as chaotic, to say the least, but for the most part things are back to normal. Part 14 of this story has already been sent on to my beta-ers and the Prelude and Chapter 1 of Maybe Forever have been completely re-written and posted. The revamp of Chapter 2 and the all-new chapter 20 should be due to my beta-ers by the end of April, as well as Part 15 of this story. _

_Stay patient with me, I'm trying as hard as I can for you guys, I promise!_

**Part 13: Confidentiality**

"_It's over."_

The ashen-haired Hyuuga jumped clear out of her seat when an open condom wrapper landed on the desk in front of her, seemingly out of nowhere. Turning to face the hollow voice that had spoken, she couldn't speak for several moments, her eyes drawn straight to the crimson-stained hand that had dropped the disgusting trinket.

"All the proof you need is right there. Keep it safe, because I'm not staying to procure another one for you." Understanding what the other kunoichi must have done to get it for her, Haruka swallowed her disgust and gingerly picked the square packet up between thumb and forefinger, shuddering softly as she stashed it away within her desk drawer. Nodding politely, she once again swallowed the bile rising in her throat before addressing the plainly disturbed woman.

"Thank you. A shinobi came calling for you from the village, Sakura-san. I sent him to your room, since I assume that he's a messenger of some sort." Sakura's only response was a mute and distant nod, causing Haruka to flinch at the haunted, hollow look in the older kunoichi's eyes as she turned to leave the room. Remembering the blood all over her hand, Haruka sprung out of her seat to stop her from leaving.

"...How badly did he hurt you?" Sakura merely managed a weak smile, though she didn't turn.

"...I did this to myself, Hyuuga-sama. Please enjoy the rest of your day, and I will come and notify you just before we vacate the premises. Thank you for telling me about the visitor." Frightened by her strangely cold and distant tone, Haruka didn't stop Sakura from leaving. Staring at the door as it swung shut, the young kunoichi inwardly felt justified for never having taken her jounin exams; There was no possible way she could ever have done what the pink-haired girl had.

* * *

"_I guarantee you, Sakura-san, this is for your own security."_

Kakashi noted the distinctly male voice escaping from the open bedroom door as he approached it, narrowing his eyes slightly as Sakura's voice, timid and quiet, followed shortly afterwards.

"_I can't leave without letting my partner know where I've gone. Even if it is just back to the village, I don't want him to worry about me."_

"_Unfortunately, my orders were extremely explicit. The Hokage needs you back at the tower to ensure your continued safety in light of recent events, and if you resist I am authorized to subdue you."_

"_I'm not resisting! What is so important that ANBU are being sent after me?!"_

"_That subject is classified and may be broached inside the Hokage's office. No sooner, I'm afraid."_

Finally reaching the door, Kakashi pushed it open to be greeted by the sight of Sakura in an obviously defensive position while trying to hold her side of an argument against an overly intimidating ANBU that Kakashi recognized on sight, but not by name.

"Kakashi-san, the Hokage has requested you both back at the village immediately. Sakura-san's safety is compromised to an incredible degree for as long as she remains here and appropriate preparations have been made for your return." Noting the guilty way that Sakura shied away from him and used the massive ANBU officer to blockade herself from his sight, Kakashi merely nodded in resignation.

"Our mission is complete here, so we have no reason to stay any longer if it's that important." The elite jounin's expression remained placid behind the dark scarf he had worn over the lower portion of his face and hadn't removed yet, while across the room from him, Sakura's face went white as a sheet while she instinctively buried her face in her hands and forewent any further argument to the situation. Glad to speak to someone who wouldn't immediately strike up an argument with him, the black-clad man handed a moderately-sized scroll to the copy-nin before beginning to take his leave.

"W-wait! Where are you going?!" Only Kakashi was in a position to catch the slight smile that crossed what he identified now as Akimichi Chouza's face before the larger man turned back into the room to face the terrified girl who looked as though she'd rather jump out the window than actually look at her mission partner.

"That scroll can only transport two people to the village. If I were to find you alone, my instructions were to take you back and leave further orders for Kakashi-san. If I were to find you together, my orders were to hand over the scroll and double back to catch up with my cell. Anything further will be explained more adequately by the Hokage. Gomenasai, Sakura-san." Nodding mutely, Sakura accepted the polite bow as his gesture of departure before she found herself alone in the room with the one person she couldn't make herself face right at that moment.

Stepping forward, Kakashi had to swallow the frustration that threatened to erupt at her own abrupt step backwards, one that made her collide with the bedroom window while trying to keep a personal bubble of space between them. He knew better than to blame her for behavior that had been deeply ingrained into her psyche, but that didn't stop her actions from figuratively cutting him to the bone; The way she cowered and tried to make herself as small as possible while simultaneously trying to work her way into the corner while he approached said all too much about how she had been treated in the past and fully expected him to treat her now.

"Sakura..."

"_I'm sorry..." _An extremely acute sense of deja vu struck the silver-haired man as she sunk right down to her knees on the floor and tears fell unimpeded to soak her dress, bringing him right back to a night where he'd looked the other way when Sasuke had left his permanent mark on her and hadn't said anything due to her pleading with him not to. Repentant of everything he'd let her suffer through, Kakashi knelt down when he was close enough to touch her and ignored the violent shaking of her shoulders as he took her hand and pulled her towards him as gently as he could while still making progress against her increasingly adamant resistance.

"_No... Let go..."_

A half-choked sob punctuated her near-silent plea and her feet slid along the slick floor as she futilely attempted to gain ground against him, her eyes still refusing to even open to meet his own. Completely numbed from the realization that she was so terrified of him and what he would do to her that she was fighting even the simplest of his touches, Kakashi had no idea what to do, what to say to make her trust him again.

"Sakura..." The hand not holding her own smaller one curled around her delicate frame stealthily and quickly to avoid her actually pushing him away, while he took the second of paralyzed nonresistance that he was afforded to bury his face in her uninjured shoulder and whisper the only words he could think of into the tangled sheet of dyed brown hair that separated them.

"Don't do this to me, please. I can't stand you thinking that I would ever hurt you."

It seemed like an eternity before he felt her squeeze his hand hesitantly and her next shuddering breath wrack her small frame, but more than the waiting was the way her next words reverberated in his sensitive ears, even as quietly as she whispered them.

"I don't deserve you... Not after what I did..." The irony of her sentiment was not lost upon Kakashi, who had often wondered what miracle had made him worthy of being with her, but he didn't say anything in regards to it. She wouldn't be able to understand even if he took the greatest of pains to explain to her why she was so much better than he was... that was just the way she was. He knew better than to question that by now.

"You completed the mission , which, I will remind you, you agreed to before you had any idea that we had ever been together and I didn't stop you because I didn't realize the extent of the mission. You haven't done anything wrong, Sakura." Whatever she had that might have been construed as 'composure' she promptly lost, erupting into a flood of choking sobs on his shoulder as she half-dived the rest of the way into his arms, clutching at the back of his dark sweater like it was a matter of life or death that she hang on to him. Feeling the bite of his self-betrayal, he could only wonder why he had ever let her fall to such a self depreciating level. He could have stopped things so long ago... but he hadn't. Too afraid of her ever leaving him alone to ever turn over her husband to Tsunade, he now realized that his fear had been irrational beyond belief. She might have, at one point, stopped speaking with him... but it would have passed. Even if it hadn't, her not speaking to him but still safe from her vengeful and obsessive husband should have been enough for him. He was a selfish bastard, he really didn't deserve her. Not now and not ever.

"Sakura... We should get you cleaned up. I don't think you want Tsunade to see you like that." If the depressive edge to his voice was audible, she didn't say anything about it or even seem to acknowledge it in the slightest as she nodded weakly and pushed herself to a wobbly stand. Surprising to him, her hand found the shoulder of his sweater and tugged half-heartedly, issuing a non-verbal request for him to get up off of the floor where he had been planning on sulking until Sakura deemed herself presentable. It had been too long to remember exactly when the last time he'd been able to deny her anything was, so this request didn't go unheeded either: though the weak smile that rewarded him for it only reminded him that it should be brighter. No, it would be brighter... if he hadn't been so selfish in the past.

If he hadn't been so indecisive that he'd needed to keep her at a set distance before; Not close enough to learn all his secrets, but not far enough where he didn't know all of hers.

If he hadn't been powerless against her requests for silence; There was nothing he would have consciously denied her, but in the end he had robbed her of her freedom, her self-esteem and her opportunity for the life she had deserved from the start.

He had what he had wanted; He knew she loved him even if she refused to use those exact words, but she had been the one to pay for it in the time between. He wanted so desperately to know that he could make it up to her... but that wasn't fair. Not to her. There was no making up for the last few years, because nothing was going to erase the damage that had been done.

"Kakashi... are you alright?" She was looking at him in obvious concern, apparently less concerned about her own state of being than his, despite the fact that she was physically injured and probably in pain. It was almost enough to make him smile, if only for the simple fact that he knew she would never put herself over anyone else, regardless of the circumstances. She was a giver, it just came naturally to her.

"I'm fine. Go, get cleaned up. If your safety really is compromised, I'd rather we get going as soon as possible." She shifted and fidgeted a bit before walking to the other side of the empty bed and bending down to fish underneath of it.

"...I'll just clean up when we get home. I've looked worse." When she came up, it was evident that it was her canvas knapsack that she'd been searching for, pristine and untouched since she'd put it under there. Her spare clothes had quickly stopped fitting her, so she had just put the bag away out of sight until it was time to leave... time that had decidedly arrived.

"You don't even want to wash the hair dye out?" She shook her head no, although she did take a moment to pop out her amber contacts, as if she had just temporarily forgotten them.

"I just want to go home, Kakashi." She brought her pack over and slung it over her shoulders as she picked up the scroll from where Kakashi had unintentionally let it fall and handed it to him as he tried to block out the details of her disheveled appearance. Moss, leaves and twigs stick out of her wet and tangled hair in every direction, there was bruising visible just under the cuffs of her sweater where she was trying to hide her wrists from him and the bite on her neck was thoroughly swollen and had taken on a nasty dark purple color, though it wasn't bleeding anymore. He wondered why, given the opportunity, she wouldn't just fix herself up... until he realized grudgingly that she was right; This wasn't the worst she had ever looked and in fact the injuries were fairly tame compared to what she had been used to.

Resigned, Kakashi simply nodded and opened the tightly sealed scroll before biting his thumb and smearing the resulting blood across the length of the parchment. The quickly drying streak was joined swiftly by a smudged hand-print in Sakura's blood and with his left hand and her right, three hand-seals caused the dark room around them to wash away, only to be replaced with the distinct sensation of vertigo while the Hokage's office took its time falling into place to surround them.

"_Who the hell...?"_

"_**SAKURA!" **_The voices were indistinct as they assaulted Kakashi, although the sensation of being crushed while intercepting the tackling hug that was obviously aimed at Sakura was most definitely anything but.

"Oh my god, I'm so glad you're back in one piece! We were so worried, Sakura..." Surprisingly, the quieter of the two voices, belonging to the blond Yamanaka girl, had taken on a teary, shaky note while the girl herself hugged his visibly nauseous and disoriented wife and the dense blond kyuubi-container nursed the newly-forming lump on his head that was, ultimately, the result of tackling someone he had no business tackling.

"We gathered. Why on earth would you be worried about her?" Kakashi's tone was even and completely deadpan, betraying his innate curiosity about the topic. What had spooked Naruto, and apparently the hokage, so much that they'd summon Sakura back without so much as a warning or a message sent ahead? Naruto's hurt and simultaneously relieved look as he rubbed the back of his head gave him no answers.

"Sasuke got out of prison and found out where Sakura was. We sent two squads out; One to get you two out of the line of fire and the other to..." The blond man's face went grim, but otherwise lost its trademark readability. "...do what was necessary for the safety of the village."

"P-prison? Why was Sasuke in prison?"

Nearly flinching from the innocent obliviousness of her question, Kakashi noticed plainly that where he didn't, the two blonds did. Kakashi had gathered some idea over the last while that Sakura was at times a contradiction. Sometimes she wouldn't recognize that Sasuke had done anything wrong in the way he treated her, but other times she would. Evidently this was going to be one of the former occasions. Even both Naruto and Ino's body language suggested that they didn't quite understand how to react... Maybe they thought she should know what was going on, despite not hearing a word about it.

"He hurt you, Sakura. Why do you think he was in prison?" She directed a surprised and frightened look at Kakashi and his blunt explanation, while both of her blond friends were effectively barricading him from her with their relieved embraces and, in one case, tearful breakdown. Naruto, to even Sakura's obvious surprise was the calmer and marginally quieter of the two in every aspect, taking his time to study his usually pinkette friend and take in her altered appearance.

"Baa-chan wanted him executed for everything he did to you. Things happened though, and the elders fought for his chance for a trial."

"Naruto, don't." The heated glaring match between the hokage-to-be and the shorter blond woman said all too much about the difference between what they each thought was necessary for Sakura to hear, but ultimately the deeper blue eyes won, and Ino returned to reassuring Sakura in frustrated near-silence.

"They needed more than your testimony on tape and a few pictures before they would allow Sasuke to be tried for something as serious as alleged rape, and he escaped the detention facility while we were waiting for you to return on your own power."

"Naruto, that's enough!"

It was too late, and now it was time for Kakashi to look at Sakura in shock and horror. The words had an obvious impact on the younger girl, causing her to stiffen up as if she had just been slapped in the face, but the effect was nowhere near how it affected Kakashi.

She had never said anything to him, not once. He had known that Sasuke was violent with her, but rape was something he had never honestly considered happening. Simply put, it had been beyond the scope of his comprehension until it had been said out loud. Thinking about it now that it had though... Things she had said to him under the influence that hadn't made sense then but did now...It caused her cryptic and sometimes out of context musings to hurt when he drew them back to mind.

"Naruto, if you ever mention it again, your face will end up on that mountainside in a way which I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate experiencing."

The darkness in her glare caused the blond's blue eyes to spark with his own pain at her blatant threat while she squirmed away from the both of them, hugging her torso and refusing to spare Kakashi even the slightest of glances. She had kept him from knowing on purpose, for whatever reason, and now her silence couldn't be undone. Kakashi recognized this as the point at which they should leave; Before something happened that would make her snap and unleash the poison hiding in her eyes. She was dangerous right now.

"Is that all, or do you require our presence much longer?" Sakura was continually backing towards the door of the office with her eyes trained between the two blonds staring back at her in horrified rapture. Her hands had moved behind her back, appearing from the front to simply be clasped shyly, whereas from Kakashi's vantage point, he could see her hands moving in a familiar pattern.

"We'd like you to stay and talk to us, Sakura. We're still your friends--"

"I can't, Naruto. Some other time, maybe." Kakashi darted towards her just as she formed the last seal and transported out of the office with her, the skin to skin contact of his bare fingers on her neck enough of a conduit that her jutsu took him with her to her choice of sanctuary; The bedroom in his apartment, fortuitously enough.

Immediately she collapsed face first onto the bed, unconcerned with the fact that Kakashi had followed her but not oblivious to it; Her desire to completely disappear from the world around her was overshadowing anything else she felt or noticed outside of her own exhausted state.

She didn't understand it. She had only told one person the entirety of what Sasuke had done to her and she certainly would have remembered if she had given a recorded statement. She remembered pictures being taken of her scars, but she was explicitly told that they were so that Tsunade could record a list of all her identifying marks. How had this all happened? How had somebody gotten Sasuke sent to prison?

"Sakura... why didn't you say anything?"

"...About what?" She knew exactly what about, but she was dodging and he knew it. Settling down on the bed after coaxing the dustcover out from underneath Sakura and tossing it in a ball on the floor, Kakashi found that he wasn't angry in the slightest, just a bit... disappointed with the younger girl's secrecy. She knew she could tell him anything, but she'd never even hinted at it... at least not while sober.

"Why didn't you tell me he was raping you?"

"Because I didn't know!" He froze as she started crying, fisting the blanket on either side of her head as her raised voice barely broke through the fabric to reach him.

"I never... I never thought of it as rape until Tsunade said it like that, I..." She turned her head to speak more clearly, though her face was turned away from rather than towards him and her shoulders shook slightly as she curled her knees up to her stomach and rolled completely on her side, covering her face with one arm. Her voice went extremely quiet, almost to the point where he strained to hear her as she tried to siphon the tears from it.

"Rape was... the civilian girl who got accosted in a dark alley and ended up on my patient list, or the kunoichi who got sent on a pink mission that went sour. It wasn't... I wasn't..." She flinched and retreated when he tried to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, at a loss for what else to do. Even quieter than her last statement was the next as she sat up, striving to get away from him.

"...I wasn't raped. I gave permission when I said my vows."

She stunned him with those words. As she stood up and walked to the other edge of the room, her arms hugged tightly around her torso and her back deliberately to him, the simplest thing he couldn't comprehend was why she was defending her former husband. It was like... she condoned what he did, even going so far as to pardon his actions against her.

"Sakura..." She turned around, leaning back against the wall directly across from him to show that she was listening, but her eyes were unsure and looking at the floor between them. He truly had no definitive idea of what to say to her anymore... he couldn't think of anything. He couldn't understand why he hadn't noticed beforehand that her situation was as serious as it was. He was the worst excuse for a friend she ever could have had, there was no denying that at this point. This was his fault.

"...You should go get cleaned up now and get some rest. We skipped out on our debriefing, but we won't be lucky enough that they'll let us dodge it tomorrow too." She looked up in surprise, her eyes almost actually making it all the way to his face before she nodded slightly and shakily moved away from the wall, still apparently terrified of him.

He could hear the water running in the tub before he completely resigned himself to the fact that he was most likely never going to completely break the psychological hold that Sasuke had over Sakura. At the same time, he found himself wondering what he was could do about it. Was she even going to make it through her pregnancy like this, or would there be three more lives to add to the list of ones he had ended?

_How... do you fix it when something so delicate has not only broken, but shattered?_


	14. Humanity

_**GR's Note: **Thank you all for your reviews, as they're much appreciated and a great motivator for me to continue writing! Thanks also to my wonderful betas, who are as infinitely patient with me as the rest of you and provide an invaluable effort towards sparing my readers from the general havoc that is my un-beta'd work. I'm not on hiatus, per say, but for the next little while, my internet will be extremely inconsistent at best and for a good portion of the next few months, I won't have any, just like I haven't the last few weeks. I'm sorry for what will amount to sporadic updates, but I don't have any choice, at least if I want to update at all. Enjoy! ^_^_

**14: Humanity**

"Kirie... She's not Sasuke's daughter, is she?"

Ino looked up from changing her daughter's diaper to shake her head softly, all the while keeping a close eye on the visibly pregnant woman dangling a ring of plastic keys over the infant's eyes. It didn't matter, since Sakura wasn't looking at her and hadn't done so properly since her return to the village... But, for so many reasons, Ino found it hard to look her directly in the eyes anyway. She didn't even bother to point out that Kirie was blind and so couldn't see the plastic toy suspended from Sakura's fingers.

"No... She's Naruto's, through and through. She never liked Sasuke." Sakura only nodded absently, giving little indication that she was paying attention to any details of what her friend was saying.

"He... I don't understand..." Down onto the hospital change-table went the plastic keys, making a dull clatter against the sanitary pad while the infant girl fled it for her mother's arms, now changed and ready to face the world again. Her mother, while working to coax the hood of her sleeper over her head, could only wait to hear about what was bothering her best friend. She had her suspicions, but there was never any certainty when it came to Sakura.

"How could he suspect me of cheating on him...? Or not find you out, for that matter...?" The blond simply shrugged before putting Kirie in her carrier, strapped over her chest with a freshly retrieved toy wedged where she could touch and chew on it.

Normally, Ino would still be on maternity leave and wouldn't be anywhere near the hospital, but Naruto had mandated that Sakura be checked over thoroughly upon leaving their mission debriefing; With Tsunade gone to Suna on a diplomatic assignment and Shizune gone with her family on a week-long summer vacation to soften the impact of the news she had yet to break to Genma about the little sister Chihiro would be getting in about seven months time... Ino was the only medic in the village that the substitute hokage would trust Sakura's health to.

"Sakura... You gave Kakashi bedsheets for his birthday three years ago, you remember that? Red, Egyptian cotton bedsheets that, I might add, I would absolutely die for and cost you more than I've paid for every piece of clothing in my possession! Put together! ...You don't do that unless you're planning on sleeping in those sheets yourself, Sakura. Everyone thought you two were involved." Ino raised an eyebrow at the exasperated expression that crossed Sakura's expression where she had been wholly anticipating a blush and the slight grumble that entered her tone in place of the listless detachment that had been.

"I figured that if I was going to continue hand-washing his sheets with my delicates, it might as well be for a good reason rather than because they were too threadbare to stand up to my washing machine. Damn it, he wasn't supposed to tell anyone about those..." Ino snapped her fingers as she got the equipment set up for Sakura's ultrasound, the last part of Sakura's required examination.

"Case in point! You were doing his laundry, Sakura. Naruto still won't let me touch his." Sakura snorted.

"Only because you don't do it like I do. I did all the boys' laundry because I got sick of them coming to training smelling like they'd never been introduced to the concept of detergent." Ino scratched her head before pointing out another obvious fact that the pink-haired woman had no doubt overlooked.

"You don't cook and keep house for all the boys though, do you? Besides, Sakura... Bedsheets? Seriously, what were we supposed to think?" This time, the bait had the intended effect and Ino jumped all over the red tint that had made its way over the pregnant woman's face.

"I knew it! There was so something there, you aren't completely stupid!" Sakura frowned, arms crossed in between the swells of her breasts and abdomen while Ino squealed and barely refrained from jumping up and down in excitement. "I mean, maybe nothing happened at the time, but it was bound to sooner or later! … Something did happen, right?" Sakura twitched slightly in irritation over Ino's easily excitable nature before grinding out a tempered response in lieu of losing her temper with an infant in the room.

"Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be here, would I?" Sakura gestured to the bed and adjacent ultrasound equipment before Ino actually hopped up and down in giddiness, despite the infant strapped firmly to her chest. Kirie didn't mind, it seemed; Her several weeks of life had given her ample time to become accustomed to her rather loud and active parents, and so when Ino started hopping up and down, the infant simply gripped on tighter to her mother's shirt and dozed off. Sakura could see right off the bat that Kirie, unlike her parents, was going to be a very calm and most likely quiet little girl.

"Alright, hop up! I wanna see my little almost-niece!" Sakura sighed softly, hoping to ready herself for the outburst that was inevitably coming as she hefted herself up on the table and lifted up the sweater that she had borrowed from Kakashi so that the smooth bump of her abdomen was prominently visible. Once again, Ino eyebrows quirked at actually seeing the impact of her friend's pregnancy.

"Uh... No offense, but what are you feeding that kid? Even I wasn't that big at twelve weeks..." A moment of awkward silence followed while Ino's face took on a wistful expression and she ruffled her daughter's fine hair, and Sakura wasn't quite sure what was wrong. She never got the chance to ask what was on the blonde's mind though, as she was quickly assisted into a reclining position and Ino's features went back to the way they had been; Nothing but expectant curiosity.

"Alright, this is going to be a little cold..." Sakura rolled her eyes as Ino squirted a glob of the greenish-blue gel on her belly, having said and done the same thing to dozens upon dozens of her own patients over the course of her career; Strange, it was a little different being on the other side of things. It was... different, wondering about her babies' health rather than her patient's baby. She was almost too unnerved to look at the black and white monitor standing to the side of the table, where Ino had turned it so that she could see clearly.

"_Wow..."_

The women exchanged a glance after expressing the exact same thing at exactly the same time, although Ino's face was plainly more shocked as she controlled the medical apparatus than Sakura's was while she simply watched the monitor in wonderment.

Ino never voiced her complete and utter surprise as she saw not one or two, but three tiny forms on the monitor, because Sakura's expression completely perplexed her to the point of speechlessness. No surprise, or anything even close to it... Just undivided rapture and the faintest hint of tears. Not sad tears... just the tears that came with the abrupt realization that the fetuses she was carrying weren't just there; They were living, moving little infants with beating hearts. Almost nostalgic, Ino found herself thinking back to her first ultrasound and how it had truly driven the point home that she was supporting two tiny lives inside of her.

"Sakura... You knew there was more than one, didn't you?" Sakura wiped her eyes with the cuff of the over-sized blue sweater she was wearing before nodding shakily and returning her eyes directly to the screen again.

"Yeah...'bout a month ago Pakkun told us. Stupid dog..." Because whether or not she'd like to admit it, knowing ahead of time had indeed been a godsend; Finding out that she'd be having three kids like this, staring at a grainy black and white screen... It would have been too much for her, she knew it. The extra time had given her an opportunity to cope and now she was able to concentrate on watching her little miracles move their tiny little arms and legs as Ino continued on with the exam in an extremely professional manner.

"... How'd he know?" Pakkun had come and delivered the reports to her and Naruto the morning before and never said a word about it... though Sakura never said anything about it in her report, either. Sakura shrugged slightly before showing Ino an odd smile, one she hadn't seen from her friend in years.

"Dogs are more sensitive to chakra than humans are, so they can sense it developing before we can. Stupid mutt nearly gave me a stroke..."

"Did you... Did you go off your shot?" Sakura's brows furrowed as she ventured a curious glance at Ino, who was more entranced with taking notes than she was with paying Sakura any mind.

"Not purposely... I... I was due to come in for it, but I wasn't in any condition where I would want to be seen by anyone here... I forgot to reschedule my appointment." Ino nodded, her own brows furrowing further as she made another note in Sakura's folder before delicately pressing the button to turn on the ultrasound printer.

"...You were one of the guinea pigs testing the new one, weren't you? Figures." Looking up, Ino noticed the questioning and slightly concerned look Sakura was aiming at her and only ventured to explain herself once she had averted her gaze to her work again.

"Tsunade stopped the tests. Stuff like this has been happening fairly frequently if the girls aren't taken off of the shot gradually; The body gets confused and releases more eggs than normal with its first ovulation following the drop in hormone levels. We've got 16 girls, including me and you, who went off the shot and ended up pregnant with multiple children... Tsunade calls it 'hyperfertility'... But she's positive that it isn't any more dangerous than any normal multiple birth, so at least you don't have to worry about that."

"...What happened to your other one?" Ino flinched, even though she had been anticipating that question. Even though she had her daughter, the premature death of her firstborn was still a raw wound for both her and Naruto.

"I was on a mission in Grass in those first delicate weeks, before I knew I was pregnant, and we got ambushed and nearly slaughtered. We made it out, but it took a soldier pill to do that, and you know what the effects even just one of those can have on an embryo. I went into labor at 32 weeks, and they were both underdeveloped... Kirie's only here because Tsunade was there to save her." Seeing the pain in her friend's icy blue eyes and the protective manner in which she held her daughter even tighter against her chest, for a moment Sakura could almost understand what Ino and Naruto were going through; How horrible would it be to lose her children after nine months of bonding with them? Even after only a few weeks, she'd gotten used to the idea of having a ready-made family and was now even awaiting motherhood with anticipation; That was most likely the hormones and normally dormant maternal instinct affecting her thought processes, but now she couldn't wait to see the day where her children would move their little fingers and toes within plain sight like Kirie was doing as she protested sleepily against her mother's increasingly tight embrace.

"I'm sorry... That... That must have hurt the both of you." Ino only gave a shaky smile as she carefully captured and printed screenshots of various angles of the ultrasound, both for Sakura's record and for Sakura to take home and put in a photo album for later on.

"It does... but it's alright. We're going to keep trying. I think I can tell the babies' genders, if you want to know..." Sakura shook her head, slightly amused.

"I can see exactly the same thing as you can on that screen, Ino. All the same, let's wait and see. We might very well be wrong." A knock at the door interrupted the young women's quiet, unprovoked giggles and they both silenced completely, with Ino shutting the floor-length curtain that bisected the room to block Sakura's view of the door while she answered it.

"I'm almost through, if you can wai-- Oh, Naruto. Hi."

"Hey, you're almost done? … Is she alright?" Taking a look back into the room to peek at Sakura's silhouette, who had now taken the ultrasound equipment and was controlling it herself, Ino stepped out of the room and almost shut the door before she even noticed Kakashi standing there. Turning red, she pushed open the door again and gestured inside.

"I don't really think you want to miss this... It'll be a few months before you get another chance." She nearly let a knowing smile slip as Kakashi slid past her and she shut the door to confer with her husband. "She's fine, barring the obvious. She had a couple of bites on her and some bruising, but she told me that was a result of seeing her mission through to completion. She's good as new now though. Well... mostly."

Sheepishly, she looked back through the tiny window in the door to see that the curtain had been pushed aside enough to see the two occupants of the room clearly, making her wonder why she had bothered to shut it in the first place. The smile that she hadn't let slip a moment ago wasn't about to be contained after seeing the sight beyond the door and silently, Ino attracted Naruto's attention to something never seen in public, ever.

Kakashi had pulled his mask down and wore the exact same expression Sakura had been wearing minutes ago, one hand holding the ultrasound apparatus while Sakura's smaller hand lie on top of his, guiding it around so that he could see everything she had. The resulting picture resonated with cuteness... right up until Naruto caught sight of it and ruined it with a variety of surprised choking sounds. Turning one eye towards him, Ino shook her head in amusement at the horrified expression on her husband's face as he pointed a shaking finger at the window.

"I thought he had buck teeth! Or an ugly nose! H-he looks... He l-looks... **Normal**!" Ino rolled her eyes at Naruto's ridiculous reaction, before swatting his hand for him to return to reality and regain some composure. He was the hokage, at least temporarily... He should be setting a good example.

"Of course he looks normal, you knucklehead. That mask is skintight, I'm sure we'd have been able to tell by now if he was hideously deformed... Honestly, sometimes you just don't think." She flicked the end of his nose playfully and stuck her tongue out to remind him that she was just teasing him with her comments; She'd succumbed to enough blond moments that she really had no right to call him a knucklehead, but… it was almost like a pet name; If she didn't tease him, their relationship would get too serious and that just didn't work for her. She liked teasing him and she knew he liked teasing her right back.

"He refused the annulment." Ino snapped back to attention before sneaking a peek back in the window again, not entirely surprised with her husband's comment.

"... I'll have to throw her a belated bridal shower." Naruto looked at her, more serious than normal as he regarded her inquiringly. She simply shrugged.

"What did you want me to say? Even if he hadn't, we both know they just would've gotten married again anyway. Personally, I wouldn't want to look pregnant in my wedding photos, so I'm sure Sakura definitely doesn't."

"So it's official, they're together now?" Ino nodded towards the window, wherein she was quietly observing the couple whispering quietly to each other behind the door.

"I'd say so. They're having their own freakin' genin team, so they'd damn well better be!" Naruto let out a choked sound once again before silently pointing in the window at the ultrasound monitor, looking for all the world like someone was strangling him.

"Three?!" Ino nodded and slapped her completed report into his chest, folder and all, wherein he took it and immediately went rifling through the pictures that were practically still hot from the printer. With every picture he flipped past his jaw slackened and dropped a little farther, until Ino, knowing that their prolonged conference would undoubtedly make Sakura and Kakashi suspect that something was up, took the folder from her husband's hands and snapped it tightly shut.

Grinning playfully, Ino tweaked Naruto's nose in an attempt to alleviate the pout beginning to form over his face before suggesting something that she knew would brighten his spirits.

"So, wanna see which one of us can spread the news faster?"


End file.
